




Copyright ~N ° ' ' \ a. 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 









The Magic Key 

















“ A lonely little boy sat in front of the fire ” 







* 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

OCT. 24 1901 

Copyright entry 

/ Cf o / 

CLASS (X XXc. No. 

/ °\ la / t 

COPY B. 



Copyright , -Z90.Z, 

By Little, Brown, and Company 
A ll rights reserved 


October, 1901 



UNIVERSITY PRESS • JOHN WILSON 
AND SON • CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. 


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TO 


Helen and Guy 



NOTE 


These Chapters were first told as an every- 
night set of stories to Helen and Guy, whose 
eager listening made one think that other girls 
and boys might like to hear about Harold’s really 
wonderful happenings too. 

E. S. T. 


9 



I 


Contents 


Chapter Page 

I. The Magic Key 15 

Drawer No. 1 . 

The Magic Picture Roll ... 26 

II. Was it a Dream ? 42 

Drawer No. 2. 

The Power of Life 47 

III. James helps Harold 60 

Drawer No. 3. 

Being Invisible 65 

IV. Buying for “The Others”. . . 93 

Drawer No. 4. 

Silver Magic 100 

V. Harold waits and writes . . . 119 

Drawer No. 5. 

The Power of Strength . . . 12 1 


CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

VI. Rob’s Punishment 132 

Drawer No. 6. 

An Airy Flight 140 

VII. Understanding 162 

VIII. A Wonderful Art 183 

IX. Transformation 204 

X. Arrested Motion 232 


12 


List of Illustrations 


“ A lonely little boy sat in front of the fire ” . Frontispiece 
“ He suddenly saw a small shining spot ” . page 24 

“ A boy watched always at the keyhole ” . page 3 1 

“The boy on watch waved his piece of pie 

frantically ” . . . . page 32 

“ From the mist appeared the pretty form 

of Jess ” page 35 

“ Baby Bob sound asleep in his crib ” . . page 38 

“ It slowly walked across the room ” . . . page 50 

“ The man in armor arose and laid the time- 
piece off his shoulders ” page 50 

“ The shepherdess strolled across the mantel- 
piece ” page 50 

“ All was a scene of wild confusion ”... page 58 
“ The little harlequin had a very malicious grin ” page 6 1 
“ His spiky hair actually rose on end ” . . page 72 

“ ‘ I ’ll not sit by a spook ’ ” page 75 

“James stared as the boy came into sight” . page 90 
“ The girl exclaimed in amazement ”... page 1 08 
“James stood no chance as Harold seemed 

to fly ” page 123 

“One boy, not Harold, was left far be- 
hind ” • face page 126 


13 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


“The precious little bottle was dropped and 

broken into bits ” page 

“ With a whizz and a puff out came a cloud 

of fiery powder ” page 

“ He kept near the ceiling, and no one ever 

looked up at him ” page 

“ Poor Harold was most uncomfortable ” . page 

“ Guided his flight by catching the balcony 

rails ” page 

“ He sailed right up to the ceiling 99 . . . page 

“ Harold listening breathlessly ” . . . face page 

“ 4 Oh, these pesky flies ! ’ ” page 

“ The smaller bear kept up an injured growl ” page 
“ He stood on a small cake of ice and moaned 

for his lost home ” page 

“ A tall ostrich snatched the precious shell ” . page 
“ The boy stepped out of his picture ” . . page 

“ ( Draw me a bumper, menial, or I ’ll smite 

thy cheek ! ’ ” page 

“ He went straight to the stall where the trans- 
formed Peter stood ” face page 

“ The stick did not fall, and the dog ran joy- 
fully away v page 

^Harold and Dick turned to see quite a 

crowd of people pursuing ” . . . . page 


1 3° 

i3 8 

147 

*53 

iS7 

J 59 

I 7 1 

r 75 

177 

x 79 

181 

186 

191 

222 

248 

250 


14 


Chapter One 

The Magic Key 

A LONELY little boy sat in a big 
room, looking into the fire 
and thinking of the days 
^ when he had not been a lonely 
boy, but had scrabbled over a nursery 
fire in a cheerful little room with two 
brothers and a sister. This was before 
that sad, hard time when father was 
sent by the government (whatever 
mysterious power that might be) upon 
a survey into a far distant country. 
Mother was compelled to go with him, 
for she said he never would take care 
of himself, and so the family was 
broken up and scattered for a year. 
Dick and Jess were sent to schools; 
baby Rob to an aunt in the country, 
where he was spoiled to his and her 
heart’s content; and Harold, our lonely 

15 


THE MAGIC KEY 


boy here, found himself adopted for the 
year by his uncle godfather, who was a 
grave and studious old scholar. Into 
his solemn and grown-up household 
boy Harold came, and, naturally shy, 
was easily subdued into quiet and still 
ways befitting the staid and grave 
house. He learned not to disturb his 
uncle; and he was forced to find his 
only society with the rather elderly 
James, his uncle’s butler and attendant, 
who sometimes unbent and tried to 
remember that he too had once been a 
little boy for Harold’s benefit, and good 
Mrs. Bangs, the housekeeper, who did 
her best to mother him and make him 
comfortable in every way. 

He had a very lovely big room all to 
himself, where once he had to share a 
small one with his brother, and yet he 
was lonely. But out of the loneliness 
of his life came a series of most won- 
derful happenings, which never could 
have come to him in any other way. 
So that, after all, this year of his life, 
16 


THE MAGIC KEY 


which began in such a sad and rather 
dull way, was to prove to be one he 
never would forget. It was very sud- 
den; but it all happened quite natur- 
ally, so that afterwards, when telling of 
his experience to doubting hearers, he 
alone was always sure that the strange 
occurrences had really taken place, and 
were not “ only dreams/’ as every one 
unacquainted with the facts seemed to 
think. It all came about in this way. 

You see that, being an only little boy 
in such a grown-up household, he was 
left alone a great deal, and had plenty 
of time for dreaming and strange hap- 
penings ; and in looking back on the 
events of those times, when Harold 
feels at all inclined to think them only 
“ dreams,” as his credulous hearers do, 
he is glad of the little records made 
in his own writing at the time, for cer- 
tainly they are almost unbelievable. 

Very soon after he arrived and had 
become a settled member of the new 
home, his uncle seemed to forget the 

2 17 


THE MAGIC KEY 


boys existence, and, as they were only 
together at the evening dinner, pursued 
his studies without any interruption. 
These dinners were very solemn affairs. 
Uncle Harold sometimes made an effort 
to talk to the boy sitting so quietly at 
the other end of the great table, but 
it was hard to bring his mind to a 
boy level of understanding; and soon 
Harold grew accustomed to eating in 
silence, and only answering a few ques- 
tions at dessert. Then Uncle Harold 
always tried to talk a bit with him, and 
usually asked him the same questions 
about his school and his happiness and 
comfort, to which there were always 
the same answers. And as this was 
the whole dinner conversation, you can 
easily see how Harold did not enjoy 
the meal very much, but was always 
glad when, it being over, he was at lib- 
erty to go to his own cosey room for a 
chat with Mrs. Bangs. 

At the school on their Square to 
which his uncle sent him, Harold was 
18 


THE MAGIC KEY 


the odd boy among a number of already 
paired off mates. So altogether, you 
see, it is no wonder that it was a 
“ lonely boy ” who sat by the fire 
dreaming that night. 

It was the night of his birthday, too, 
— his tenth birthday! and the thought 
of what mother would have done for 
him would come up. She ’d have 
had a cake with ten candles, and a 
humpy, napkin-covered plate at break- 
fast. There would have been ten 
kisses, too ! Last year nine had seemed 
a great many, but ten! The tears 
nearly came at this thought. 

Mrs. Bangs, to whom he had told 
the important fact of his birthday that 
morning, had done her best with a little 
surprise for him, and had, moreover, 
insisted that he should tell his uncle 
that it was the date of his birth. So 
at dinner that night Harold had made 
up his mind to do so. 

There was a guest with his uncle, 
a strange little sharp-eyed man, who 

19 


THE MAGIC KEY 


looked very old, and who conversed 
with Uncle Harold in a foreign lan- 
guage all dinner-time ; and neither of 
the old men noticed the little quiet boy 
at all. 

But at nuts and oranges time Harold 
summoned up his courage and said, 
“ It ’s my birthday, uncle ; I am Ten 
years old,” with much emphasis on the 
great number of the years. And they 
had both looked at him then. 

“Ten,” said the little old man. 
“Think of it, a decade begun! What 
he might do ! ” And he continued to 
gaze upon Harold till his little black 
eyes seemed to pierce right through 
him into every thought in the boys 
brain. 

His uncle exclaimed: “Bless my soul, 
so it is! Well, well, boy; here’s a 
present for you,- — spend it well, and 
come here and shake hands with me. 
I am six times ten, my boy.” 

Harold arose and gravely shook 
hands, and pocketed a little purse his 
20 


THE MAGIC KEY 


uncle handed him without looking 
into it. 

The old, old guest then said, “ Come 
here, my boy;” and after patting him on 
the head, he took a small package from 
his pocket, and slipped it into Harolds 
hand, saying: “ There is something from 
the far-away East to remember an old 
man by. May it bring you pleasure, 
and keep you from loneliness.” 

How did he know that Harold was 
lonely? It seemed a strange thing to 
say, and how could a tiny box like that 
contain anything for amusement ? 

Harold was so abashed by their un- 
usual attention that he said “good- 
night ” at once and went upstairs. 
There he found kind Mrs. Bangs had 
set a dish of his favorite sweets of her 
own make in his room for him. 

Harold would so like to have talked 
a bit with her, and get her to tell one 
of her nice stories, but she had her 
bonnet on and was going out. She 
trusted him to go to bed all right by 


THE MAGIC KEY 


himself, she said, as she had to go to 
see a sick sister. So she kissed the 
little lonely boy good-by and went off, 
leaving him there in his big room by 
the fire, to sit and think of “ the others ” 
so far away. 

He was so absorbed in this that he 
quite forgot his gifts until he felt the 
purse his uncle had given him in his 
pocket, — a hard little lump. He found 
inside of it two guineas, and he in- 
stantly began a whole series of plans 
of what he could get for “the others” 
for presents. 

Harold had never had so much 
money at one time to spend as he 
pleased in his life before, and he now 
spent it all in imagination again and 
again, passing the time very pleasantly 
in that way until he suddenly remem- 
bered his other gift from the little old, 
old man. 

It was a small bag of cotton or silk, 
holding a tiny box all covered over 
with carvings of curious figures of 
22 


THE MAGIC KEY 


dragons and leaves, and it had that 
queer, indescribable odor of the things 
from that “ far-away East ” which the 
old man had spoken of. A delightful 
sense of mystery seemed to be about 
it; and as Harold held it in his hand 
he became very conscious of the pres- 
ence of a certain old chest of drawers 
which stood in one corner of his room, 
and about which he had quite often 
wondered. It, too, was covered with 
carvings of dragons and leaves, just 
like those on the little box. It now 
seemed to impress itself on his mind 
over all the other furniture in the room. 
It had never been opened, for there 
seemed to be no key-holes ; and Mrs. 
Bangs had declared it to be simply a 
useless, “ sham” piece of furniture. 

But Harold changed his mind about 
this when he had crossed the room 
and compared it with the box in his 
hand. The carvings on both were the 
same, only much larger on the drawers, 
of course, than on the box. They were 
^3 


THE MAGIC KEY 


connected with each other, he was sure. 
Again he brought a chair, as he had 
done before many times, and, climbing 
up, looked all the carvings over for a 
key-hole or knob of any sort ; but none 
appeared to be there, even on careful 
search. 

Now, Harold had been so long over 
his thinking, his eating, and his money 
counting that it was 
long, long past bed- 
time, and as he stood 
there he was amazed 
to hear a clock strike 
twelve. 

At the last stroke 
he suddenly saw a 
small shining spot in 
the eye of a carved 
dragon in the centre 
of the top drawer ; 
and in passing his 
thumb over the green 
enamel eye of the dra- 
gon in the centre of 
24 



THE MAGIC KEY 


the little box in his hand, he felt it 
yield, press in, and, lo, the lid flew 
open, and there in the box lay a tiny 
key. Joy of joys! Harry instantly 
knew it must be the key to the 
drawers ; and, reaching up, he lost 
no time in sticking it into the shin- 
ing spot, which proved to be a hole 
into which the key exactly fitted. 

It turned. Harold pulled on it, and 
out sprang a narrow little drawer. 
That curious Eastern odor filled the 
room. Inside of the drawer lay a 
small scroll of paper, on which Harold 
read these words of queer rhyme : — 

“ Who opens me 
Magic will see. 

Each time one drawer , 

And never more 

Beside the scroll was a long round 
roll like a telescope, with “ Magic 
No. i ” written upon it, and these 
words underneath: — 

25 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“ What scene you say 
I will portray ; 

Just look through me , 

Your wish you 'll see” 

Harold lifted it out of the drawer, 
and went over to the fire and sat down. 
Here was bliss indeed! He had only 
to wish, had he? Then, of course, his 
first wish would be to see what mother 
was doing, and father, and, in fact, all 
“ the others.” Here was an end to his 
loneliness. 


DRAWER NO. I 
The Magic Picture Roll 

Harold lost no time in looking 
eagerly through one end of the Magic 
Roll. But, to his surprise, all was 
dark. He looked through the other 
end. Still darkness, and no picture. 
Then his eye caught again the writing 
on its side. Oh! it said, “Your wish 
portray.” He must wish! So in true 
16 


THE MAGIC KEY 


fairy-tale style Harold said, “ I wish I 
might see what father and mother are 
doing,” and looked in one end of the 
roll at the same time. 

There was a dim, cloudy sort of 
mist at the other end which cleared 
away as he looked (like a breath on a 
mirror) and resolved itself into a pic- 
ture. Yes, and more than that! A 
moving picture of people living and 
walking about appeared to his aston- 
ished and delighted eyes. It was the 
interior of a room which he looked 
into, — a very queer room, and tur- 
baned servants were moving about 
with trays in their hands, and the bam- 
boo furniture everywhere made all look 
very foreign to Harold. 

Presently a door opened and the 
servants all bowed to the ground be- 
fore a lady who entered the room. 
When she came forward in the light 
of the lamp, Harold saw that she was 
his own dear mother ! He could have 
cried out for joy, but feared spoiling 
27 


THE MAGIC KEY 


the picture in some way. So he sat 
quietly and watched her cross the 
room and sit down at the table. 

She leaned her head on her hand 
and after a little took a letter from her 
pocket and read it. She kissed it ; and 
Harold, wishing he might see who it 
was from, soon saw that it was his 
own funny school-boy handwriting, and 
here she was thinking of him and kiss- 
ing his letter. 

A big tear fell from his eye then 
and blurred the picture very much. 
When he could see again clearly, the 
picture had changed. His father was 
there, too, and his mother was sitting 
by him ; they were on a veranda, and 
it was very dusky, and stars were 
shining overhead. 

Harold’s dear father looked pale and 
worn, and the mother looked anxious 
as she gently smoothed his careworn 
forehead, and some way boy Harold 
suddenly realized why she had gone 
away from her children to be with 
28 


THE MAGIC KEY 


him, and a big lump rose in the boys’ 
throat. 

Then the picture got dim and indis- 
tinct, and something inside the scroll 
gave a slight tinkling sound, and all 
was black within its magic circle. 

Harold blinked his eyes a moment, 
and then, a wish rushing into his head, 
he uttered it at once : “ I wish I could 
see dear old Dick.” Blur — blur — 
clearer and clearer grew the little space 
at the end of the scroll, and then 
emerging from a mist came the rosy 
face of his brother Dick. He was sit- 
ting all alone at a desk in an old, dark 
schoolroom, doing a sum on his slate 
that apparently would not come right. 
Presently he banged his fist down on 
the table, and his round, rosy face be- 
came the picture of despair. “ Oh, 
dear ! ” said Harold, aloud, “ I wish he ’d 
see the answer.” 

Instantly the boy in the picture 
threw up his hands and clutched the 
old slate with a face entirely free of 
29 


THE MAGIC KEY 


doubts, and did the sum to his satis- 
faction in a “ jiffy.” 

Then he jumped up and ran out of 
a door. “ Oh,” said Harold, “ I never 
thought of doors ; I hope I can see 
what else he does.” But there was no 
change in the picture. The candle 
stood blinking on the table by the 
slate — but the door was closed ! 

“ Oh, I wish I could see him some 
more!” cried Harold, in despair. Ah! 
the magic word “ wish ” brought 
everything right again, for the scene 
changed, and there was Dick once 
more. This time so jolly and happy. 
There were a lot of other boys all 
about in a room. It was evidently 
Dick’s bedroom. The one candle was 
shaded mysteriously. The crack of 
the door was covered. A clock on the 
mantelpiece said “ eleven ” as plainly 
as it could, yet here were these boys 
out of their beds and all in one room, 
in a quiet, orderly school. 

Harold, watching eagerly for the 

30 


THE MAGIC KEY 


cause of this, saw one of them drag a 
basket out from under the bed, saw 
them form a circle about this basket, 
and then from its depths saw most 
wonderful things come to light. One 
pulled out a pie, another a huge frosted 
cake ; then a half-turkey, then a box of 
cookies, and last, but not least, a big 
bottle of raspberry acid. Oranges 
seemed to fill every space in that bas- 
ket, and the 
boys pro- 
ceeded to 
spread a 
sheet on the 
floor and 
piled all the 
good things 
on it. 

Haro 1 d 
could see 
that they 
were all jj 
keepings •=- 
very still, and a boy watched always 
3i 



THE MAGIC KEY 


at the keyhole of the door. They took 
turns at this while the grand feast went 


on. 



How fast those 
boys ate, and how 
mttch! Harold’s 
mouth fairly watered 
in sympathy, though 
it was so funny to see 
them all eating and 
doing everything 
without a sound — 
like a colored kinet- 
oscope picture ! 

Suddenly the boy 
on watch waved his 
piece of pie fran- 
tically in the air, the 
others gathered up 
the four corners of 
the sheet, slung it 
under the bed, hus- 
tled into the closet, 
while Dick blew 
out the light and 


3 2 


THE MAGIC KEY 


jumped into bed in his clothes. None 
too soon, for hardly had the closet door 
closed when the handle of the hall door 
turned, and the door slowly opened, 
and in a great glare of light from the 
lamp in his hand, a solemn-looking 
master strode into the room. 

He had on his dressing-gown, and 
in one hand was an open book, as 
though he had been interrupted in 
reading, and a very suspicious look 
was on his face. He walked across 
the room and gazed at the tight (oh, so 
very tight!) shut eyes of Dick lying 
there. Harold could almost seem to 
hear the terrible snores he knew must 
be coming from that bed. What if 
the master should see the end of that 
sheet sticking out from under the bed ! 
What if he should — oh, he was going 
straight to the closet ! Harold in his 
excitement said aloud, “ Oh, dear, I 
wish he ’d go away ! ” The master 
stopped in the middle of the room, act- 
ually kicked aside a turkey bone on 
33 


3 


THE MAGIC KE-Y 


the floor, smiled, and went out of the 
door. 

Harold’s sigh of relief was too heavy 
and real. He dropped the magic roll, 
and when he picked it up again he 
knew that it was too late to see any 
more of that scene. All was darkness 
when he looked through again. 

He was so excited over his discov- 
ery that he could influence the people 
in the picture by his wishes. “ Now 
for Jess,” he cried; “ I wish I could 
see what Jess is doing.” 

There very soon, from the mist of 
the coming picture, appeared the pretty 
form of dear sister Jess. She was 
standing before the tall mirror in her 
bedroom, and a maid in a cap and 
apron was putting a flower in the 
freshly curled hair. Such a gay Miss 
Jess! Dressed in a pretty white mus- 
lin, starchy and clean, with pink rib- 
bons and sash. Oh, how sweet and 
fair she looked to the longing little 
brother watching her! “ I wish — oh, 
34 


THE MAGIC KEY 



I wish she ’d think just once of me,” he 


The maid went away ; the little girl 
went straight over to a photo standing 


35 


THE MAGIC KEY 


on a shelf, took it down, and after gaz- 
ing at it wistfully for a while, she took 
a flower and laid it under the frame, 
and kissed the face therein. It was 
Harolds own picture in that frame, 
and he could seem to feel that sweet 
kiss. 

“ I wish she ’d have a good time,” he 
said, and she straightway prepared to 
do so. For she skipped about the 
room, dabbed some perfume on her 
dress, and, throwing a scarf about her 
bare neck, ran lightly out of the door. 

“ Oh ! — Oh ! ” said the watching 
Harold, “a door again! What did I 
do before — quick — let me think. Oh, 
yes. I wish I could see her again,” he 
almost shouted. And he did see her. 
Such a gay time she was having, and 
such a pretty picture this was which 
Harold next saw ! A number of bright 
little girls in pretty clothes dancing up 
and down a long hall, where he could 
see that a lady at a piano, and a violin 
and harp were evidently making the 
3 6 


THE MAGIC KEY 


music which set them dancing. Those 
who could n’t dance were bobbing up 
and down in sheer joy, and altogether 
it was a jolly scene. 

He watched them play games, hunt 
the slipper, and all the games and 
plays at a children’s party, and then 
servants came in with the usual ice- 
creams and good things, which all the 
girls ate, sitting in groups, making 
merry with great Christmas crackers 
among their goodies and sweets. 

The little girls shrank away to the 
tip end of each big cracker when 
they snapped them, so naturally that 
Harold could almost fancy he heard* 
them squeal at the “ pop ” of each 
explosion. 

He quite forgot it was a magic pic- 
ture he was watching, and felt much 
aggrieved when all the lights went sud- 
denly out, and utter blackness, with 
again that faint tinkle, proclaimed that 
the lovely moving picture was at an 
end. 


37 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Harold did not wait long. “Now for 
Bob — baby Bob,” he said to himself ; 
and holding the magic scroll firmly to 
his eye, and saying, “ I wish to see 
Bob,” he beheld the mirror like chang- 
ing mist quickly develop into a picture 
wherein he could soon distinguish his 
dear little brother. 

Oh, how sweet he 
looked to Harold boy! 
Sound asleep in his 
crib in a room with a 
shaded light. At first 
Harold only thought 
of the joy of seeing 
the dear little face again. Then, as 
he looked more closely, he thought 
it looked pale and wan, and why was 
there a shaded light burning, and why 
were there medicine bottles on a stand 
by his crib? A pang shot through 
Harold’s tender heart, as he realized 
that the baby must be ill ! 

He looked so alone lying there that 
Harold thought, “ What would mother 
38 



THE MAGIC KEY 


think ? ” and he longed to go and take 
him up in his own arms. “ Why 
could n’t I ? ” he thought. “ I ’ll try 
what wishing will do.” So he said 
aloud, and very distinctly, “ I wish I 
might go there and take him up in 
my arms.” He half expected to rise 
bodily in his chair and float into the 
picture. But he remained the same; 
only the picture, — what was happen- 
ing there? Out of the darkness of 
the room came a boy whom Harold 
instantly saw was himself — in the 
picture! 

Going up to the crib, he saw this 
boy bend over and smooth baby Bob’s 
face. Turning over, the little one 
stretched up his arms to his brother 
with joy in his face, and Harold 
watched the other Harold take him up 
in his longing arms with a feeling as 
if he was in reality doing it himself. 
They sat and rocked in the big chair 
for some time, and Harold could al- 
most feel the dear, warm little body in 
39 


THE MAGIC KEY 


his own arms, and got great comfort in 
watching his image do what he wished 
so to do himself. 

He saw the big brother wrap Bob 
in a blanket, give him a drink, and at 
last Harold in the picture rocked him 
to sleep. Presently, laying Bob in his 
crib again, and kissing him, the pic- 
ture Harold went away out of the door 
he came in at. 

And then Aunt Laura came hur- 
riedly into the room, looking anxious 
and careworn. She looked so sweet 
and motherly, and bent over baby, and 
sat there for a long while. “ Just like 
mother,” Harold thought; “after all, 
she must have been asleep. How good 
she is to him ! Oh, I wish he was well.” 

What a change came as he said that ! 
Baby turned over, sat up, and smiling 
at Aunt Laura, climbed over into her 
lap, with a face which certainly looked 
well and rosy once more. She looked 
amazed, and Harold was rejoicing in 
the sight of their happiness, when a 
40 


THE MAGIC KEY 


voice beside him said : “ Why, Master 
Harold ! Now this is too bad ! I 
thought I could trust you to go to 
bed yourself.” And there stood Mrs. 
Bangs, bonnet in hand, and Harold 
dropped the precious roll on the floor 
in confusion. “ What ’s this queer 
smell ? ” she said ; “ and what are you 
doing with an old newspaper rolled up 
in your hand at this hour of the 
night ? ” He rubbed his eyes and 
looked at the chest of drawers. No 
sign of one open was there, and only 
the little key box, also tight shut, was 
in his hand. He was suddenly so 
very sleepy and dazed that he hardly 
heard Mrs. Bangs’s complaints as she 
bundled him off to bed. There he 
sank at once into a deep sleep till the 
rising bell sounded next morning. 

END OF DRAWER NO. I 


41 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Chapter Two 

JVas it a Dream? 

I AROLD got no time to look 
at the chest of drawers next 
day until after school, but 
the wonder of it kept his at- 
tention and thoughts all through his 
lessons, and the feeling that he had 
really been with his brothers and sis- 
ters the night before was constantly 
with him. 

He ran at once to his room on get- 
ting home, but could find no sign of 
a key-hole on the drawers, nor even 
the scroll anywhere in the room. Mrs. 
Bangs, on being asked, only said, “ Oh, 
I threw that old newspaper roll into 
the grate.” 

Harold went and looked, and there 
among the ashes in the unburnt fire 
he found an old rolled-up newspaper, 
which came to pieces in his hand as 
42 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


he opened it out. He could make 
nothing of it, so he searched the chest 
of drawers once more ; but, except for 
the dragon’s head, with knob matching 
those on his little box, there was noth- 
ing to indicate that anything more 
could come of this delightful mystery. 
He remembered the rhyme under the 
first drawer, which said, “ Each time a 
drawer,” so he concluded that noth- 
ing would happen from that chest of 
drawers except at night-time. There- 
fore he was in a great hurry for night 
to come, and really amazed Mrs. Bangs 
by being so prompt to get ready for 
dinner and so eager for bedtime to 
come, when he would be alone again. 

He hung about James, who was 
arranging the dining-table, till that 
solemn butler was almost distracted. 
“ No, Master Harry, there ain’t no old 
man to be here to dinner to-night,” he 
repeated, “and your uncle is particler 
busy to-night, so you ’d best not talk 
to him too much.” 


43 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Poor Harold, so eager to tell some 
one of his wonderful experience, yet 
knowing it would be of no use to con- 
fide in any one of these matter-of-fact, 
grown-up people ! He resolved to keep 
it all to himself, — a hard lesson for a 
boy of ten to learn, — but, as time will 
tell you, much the wisest way with this 
magic-key arrangement. He did try, 
indeed, to tell a little of his wonderful 
experience to Mrs. Bangs, but she only 
laughed and said (as is usual with 
grown-up folks), “ Oh, boys do dream 
wonderful things.” So, of course, you 
see he could n’t tell any of them. 

As for the boys at school, as I said, 
he was the youngest, — the “odd one,” 
— and he was much too shy of their 
possible unbelief and laughter to trust 
his secret with them ; so it remained 
a secret which he carefully guarded. 
He sat patiently that night at dinner, 
only once venturing to ask his uncle 
who the little old man was, and where 
he had gone. 


44 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


His uncle brought his absent mind 
back from his book, keeping his finger 
in his place among its leaves, while 
he answered, “ Oh, Professor Zaski — 
yes, yes. A very extraordinary man. 
Knows many wonderful things of 
Eastern magic. He is on his way 
back to the East now. Very wonder- 
ful old man.” 

And back he went to his book, while 
James solemnly winked at Harold, as 
much as to say, “No more talking to 
him now.” 

It was quite wonderful the manner 
in which Uncle Harold would go 
through with his dinner, with perfect 
dignity and nicety of manners — even 
to the finger-bowl course — all the 
time utterly absorbed in a book at 
his side on a reading rest. 

When Harold first came to the 
house, his uncle had apologized to 
the boy, by saying, “You see, my 
boy, I ’ve formed the habit of occupy- 
ing my mind while at meals, and I 
45 


THE MAGIC KEY 


find it a most excellent way of get- 
ting very valuable information for my 
mind, without the distraction of talk- 
ing. Being an old man, my habits 
are not easy to break, so you must 
excuse me, but never hesitate to break 
in upon my reading when you wish to 
speak to me.” 

But who could have the courage to 
interrupt so absorbed a person, and 
one so easily upset on being brought 
back from his books by any question ? 
Certainly not a shy little boy like 
Harold. 

At dessert his uncle would close 
the book and talk, but always in 
such a learned way that Harold knew 
he was supposed to be a gentleman 
of his uncles own age, so that he got 
quite used to listening and not say- 
ing much. It was hard to-night, but 
he looked eagerly forward to bed- 
time and more adventures with the 
wonderful key and chest of drawers. 


46 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


DRAWER NO. II 
The Power of Life 

After dinner Mrs. Bangs, suspi- 
cious of the way Harold had sat up 
when she left him the night before, 
seemed very loath to leave him, busy- 
ing herself about the room, watch- 
ing him learn his lessons, and chatting 
with him. But at last she went away, 
saying, “ I have to go to the sick 
again to-night now, Master Harold ; 
so please remember to be a good boy, 
and do, like a dear, be in bed and 
asleep when I get back.” 

“ I ’ll try,” said Harold, though he 
felt a bit troubled at what might be 
after last night’s experience, and did 
not like to really promise to be in 
bed early. 

“Was it a dream?” he thought, as 
he stood before the chest with his 
little key-box in his hand, feeling for 
the green dragon’s eye on the lid. 
As if in answer to his question, the 
47 


THE MAGIC KEY 


eye yielded . to his pressure, the box 
again flew open, and there lay the 
magic key as before. Yes, and there, 
on looking up at the drawers, were the 
shining key-holes. The right time 
had come, and here it was all again ! 

Harold hastily ran and locked his 
room door, and climbing up on a 
chair, inserted the willing little key 
in drawer No. II. Inside lay a small 
round stick with a pointed end, and 
that was all. He took it up and read 
on the side, — 


“ Life will I give ; 

Touch me and live'.' 

Harold puzzled over this a bit. He 
was already alive. What did it mean? 
As he was getting down from his perch, 
he accidentally touched the pointed end 
of the stick against the chair he had 
been standing on. Then a strange 
thing happened. It began to move. 
It stood up on its front feet, and 
swayed back and forth as Harold 
48 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


watched it. Then it slowly walked 
across the room, moving its feet one 
after the other, exactly as a four-footed 
animal would do. 

Then it sat down on another chair 
and waited. Harold could not help 
laughing. The chair was so very 
much alive that he was not surprised 
to discover a face among the carving 
on its back, nor even to hear it re- 
mark in a hard “ woodeny ” voice, 
“Well, what are you laughing at? 
Use your power. Touch some more 
of us and give us life.” Then 
Harold realized that he held in his 
hand a power indeed, and, anxious to 
put it to the test at once, he walked 
about the room, touching various 
articles, first the clock, then a 
china shepherdess, the tongs, a little 
table, and a picture of a nice boy 
on the wall, whom he had always 
wished alive. Each thing showed 
life as soon as the pointed stick 
touched it. 


4 


49 


THE MAGIC KEY 



The clock, made in 
the form of a man in 
armor, arose and laid 
the timepiece off his 
shoulders. The shep- 
herdess figure stretched 
her dainty 
form, and 
strolled across the mantel- 
piece. The table raised up 
one of its leaves like a 
head and shoulders and 
walked about the room 
round-shouldered 
old man. The 
tongs got 
noisily down 

from their stand and 
rattled about stiffly. 
The boy in the picture 
wavered — moved — 
yes, he detached himself 
from his background, 
> and at last got down from 
the frame and stood in 

50 


like 




WAS IT A DREAM? 


the room. But Harold soon saw that he 
had no back, and had to keep facing one 
way, exactly like a paper doll, and his 
shape was left in the picture as is the 
paper from which a doll is cut. 

Harold was quite confused by all 
these surprising things happening so 
suddenly, and he sat down to watch 
them. 

The clock man-in-armor called out, 
“ Help me down from here.” So 
Harold went over expecting to easily 
lift the small bronze figure to the 
floor. But he found it so very very 
heavy that he could hardly lift it 
at all. The little man laughed with 
pride and said, “ No, no, you can’t lift 
me. Bring a ladder or something.” 
So he went to his toy closet and got 
a little ladder. In reaching up for 
this the little wand slipped out of 
his hand and fell into a large box of 
wooden soldiers. Instantly there was 
a lively time. Every soldier stepped 
out of that box, and, two by two, the 
5i 


THE MAGIC KEY 


little men stood ready for action in 
line before Harold. He called out 
“ R-r-right about face ! For-r-rward 
March!” And obeying each com- 
mand, off went the droll little line of 
wooden figures, with their military pre- 
cision and keeping step all the way, 
into the other room, to join the forces 
of the Things which had come alive. 

Harold carefully stuck this power- 
ful little wand in an upright position 
on a chair back, so that the point did 
not touch any object, and there left it. 
For this was a dangerous power, after 
all, it seemed, and might go beyond 
his control. 

The little heavy man had got down 
from his mantelpiece, with the assist- 
ance of the chair and table, and all 
were strutting about with the small 
wooden regiment over the carpet. 

The picture boy stood with his back 
carefully to the wall. “ Hello,” said 
he, as Harold came back. 

Harold went over and stood by 
52 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


him. “Just like fairies,” he said, 
pointing to the many moving things 
all about the room. 

“Well” said the boy, in an offended 
tone, “ I hope you don’t mean me. I 
am a boy as large as yourself.” 

Harold was surprised, for the picture 
boy was only the size of a picture boy, 
and came about up to Harold’s knee! 
But he refrained from replying, for, 
thought he, “ boys always do think 
themselves bigger than they are, and 
the poor fellow has no back.” 

He soon found himself much in the 
way of these living things, especially 
the small soldiers, all moving rapidly 
about the room ; so he retired to the 
arm of the old sofa, where he sat and 
watched their manoeuvres from a safe 
distance. The picture boy sidled along 
back to the wall until he reached 
Harold, who lifted him up on the sofa 
beside him, and together they watched 
the strange doings which went on in 
that room. 


53 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“ Let us have a parade review,” said 
the warlike little man from the clock ; 
“ I will be commander, in my suit of 
mail.” 

“And I,” said the Tongs, “will be 
Field Marshal.” 

It was really a lovely sight to 
Harold and the picture boy, to see 
those tiny little wooden soldiers push- 
ing heavy furniture out of the way, 
and getting into line, and preparing 
in the most soldierlike manner for the 
review. The way they ran up and 
down, and the little officers on their 
tin horses of the cavalry pranced about 
like real officers ! The gallant little 
regiment wheeled, charged, circled, and 
rushed about the field in the most 
delightful way, and Harold thought he 
never could forget it. He clapped his 
hands and cheered, while the paper 
boy waved his thin arms in the air 
ecstatically. 

But the funniest thing was, when 
the order to “ break ranks ” was given, 
54 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


those funny little “ orderlies ” found 
themselves obliged to do as they had 
always been trained ; and what did 
they do but rush into the closet, where 
Harold then found them all packed 
into their box, which they were made 
to fit. There they stayed, and Harold 
suddenly thought of a toy out of 
which all the other things might find 
some amusement. So he got out his 
little jumping Harlequin, and touch- 
ing the little man with the magic 
wand, he soon had him prancing all 
about in gay leaps and twists, like a 
clown at the circus. Over and over 
went the gay tumbler, whisking and 
whirling about, while all the others 
laughed and clapped with glee. At 
last he sat up and said: “Well, Master 
Harold, you ’ve done a great thing to 
us all to-night, have n’t you ? But 
why are n’t the rest of the poor things 
moving about too? Where is that 
wand of yours ? ” And with a bound 
he snatched the wand and skipped 
55 


THE MAGIC KEY 


lightly about the room, touching here, 
there, and everywhere, until the whole 
room became full of moving things, 
and the very sofa under Harold began 
to kick about its stiff legs and soon 
threw him off. The little china shep- 
herdess stood in a corner and shrieked 
for protection as a ponderous table 
careered about the room like a cart- 
horse let loose on a Sunday. The 
sofa tramped about, the chairs banged 
into each other, the tongs clattered, 
and all was noise, clamor, and con- 
fusion. Harold soon realized that 
something must be done. But what? 
The first thing was to get the wand 
away from that little imp of a clown. 
This was no easy task, for he bounded 
away from poor Harold like a rubber 
ball among all the moving furniture, 
now up on the mantelpiece, now on 
a bed-post. Just as he was about to 
touch this post with the mischief-mak- 
ing wand, Harold caught and held 
him fast and seized the wand away. 
56 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


The thought of a bed careering about 
in the already chaotic room was too 
dreadful. Harold held the wand high 
out of the clown’s reach, and tried to 
think what he could do. The china lady 
came to him begging to be put back on 
her safe mantelpiece again. As he put 
her up there, he said, “ I wish I knew 
the way to stop things ; ” and instantly 
he felt the stick turn round in his hand, 
presenting the other end to him. This 
was the way, he saw ! 

“ Do you wish to be turned into 
china agairf ? ” he asked the frightened 
little lady. 

“ Oh, yes, yes',' she replied. 

And he touched her with the other 
end, and was so glad to see that his 
guess as to the stopping of this mis- 
chief was right, for she stiffened into 
china stillness at once, with a contented 
smile on her little face. 

Next the bronze man besought him 
for help also, and folding his arms 
he received the touch which turned 
57 




THE MAGIC KEY 


him back to bronze again with calm 
stolidity. 

Harold then started about the room 
on his work of returning the things. 
And none too soon. All was a scene 
of wild confusion. The soldiers had 
come back and were storming into 
everything, and the noise of the heavy 



moving furniture was dreadful. Harold 
was banged about, almost run down, 
and thumped out of the way, and saved 


58 


WAS IT A DREAM? 


himself from being crushed by a great 
wardrobe which came hurrying at him 
by quickly presenting the knob end of 
the wand — just in time. It stiffened 
and was still, but, alas, in the middle 
of the floor, and Harold could not move 
it back to its accustomed place. He 
had all he could do to reach and touch 
the big clumsy things back into quiet 
shape again, and everything got in his 
way. He was about to give it up in 
despair and run out of the room, when 
the clock gave twelve clear strokes, 
the wand vanished from his hand, 
and every moving thing in the room 
stopped, still and lifeless, though, alas, 
in the places where they happened 
to be. 


59 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Chapter Three 

ycimes helps Harold 

A S soon as he was dressed, he 
/% pushed all the articles of fur- 
f ^ niture that he could move 
back into place, but that 
dreadful wardrobe was quite beyond 
his strength. So after his breakfast 
was hurriedly eaten, he was forced to 
ask James to come and help him “ to 
tidy his room.” That worthy man was 
much astonished to see the state of the 
room, and he remarked, “ Well, well, 
you must have had a lively play here 
last night, Master Harry.” 

Harold replied that he had, and 
added, “ But I wish that stupid old 
wardrobe and sofa had known enough 
to stay in their places and not go 
running all about so.” 

“ Now, now,” said James, “ ye know, 
60 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


Master Harry, furniture can’t move 
itself, though ’ow you ever managed to 
get this here wardrobe away into the 
middle of the floor I don’t see.” 

Harold helped without another word, 
and with a great deal of labor and 
shoving they finally got things back 
into their places. Harold could not re- 
sist giving the old sofa 
a kick when they tried 
to move it, saying, “You 
were lively enough last 
night, you mean old 
thing!” And he 
thought the little har- 
lequin who caused so 
much of the mischief 
and confusion had a 
very malicious and 
meaning grin on his 
little waxen face as he 
picked him up from under the otto- 
man in a far corner. The dressing- 
table had scattered its brushes and 
bottles all about the floor. The table 



THE MAGIC KEY 


had sent books and pencils into every 
corner. The rugs were rolled about 
table legs, and all was dire confusion. 
It took Harold and James two good 
hours to get everything in order. 
When they were done James mopped 
his tired brow and said: “Now, me 
boy, don’t you never go to trying such 
a play, whatever it may have been, all by 
yourself again, for I ’ll not help you out, 
nor keep silence to Mrs. Bangs, or even 
your good uncle, a second time, see’n as 
it ’s too hard work to clean up.” 

Harold promised he would not, and 
thanked James many times for his 
help, going to his bank for a shilling 
also for him, as a more substantial 
means of gratitude, which James the 
stately did not refuse to accept. If it 
had not been for the upset room, 
Harold would have thought his last 
night’s experience to be a dream. But 
here was such strong evidence to the 
reality of the event he remembered 
that he bore his scolding meekly, and 
62 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


rejoiced in the fact of the powerful 
little key in his possession to unlock 
more of this wonderful magic in the 
future, and he waited patiently for the 
night to come, that he might try his 
luck at the chest once more. Mrs. 
Bangs did not go out. She sat se- 
verely by the fire in Harolds outer 
room knitting, while she saw him safely 
into bed that night, with a face which 
said, “ I cannot trust you, so I am 
forced to stay in, and you are a bad 
boy.” Harold wished in vain for her to 
go. And at last he had to pretend to 
be asleep to make her leave him. Not 
till she saw his eyes fast shut did she 
depart, taking the lamp with her and 
shutting the door softly. Harold felt 
very badly at deceiving her, she was so 
good to him. But as soon as she had 
gone the longing to try his magic again 
came over him, and he crept out in 
the darkness to the bureau. She had 
taken his lamp, so he groped about for 
matches ; but he soon found there was 

63 


THE MAGIC KEY 


no need of lights where magic was 
concerned. For in his hand the box 
lid, flying open, gave forth a light 
which showed the little key plainly, 
and also the row of holes in the tall 
bureau. He climbed up, and by this 
faint, strange light, in which he could 
clearly see the thing held in his hand, 
he opened the third drawer. 

There he found a box, a little flat 
thing like a large pill-box. Written on 
it in distinct letters was this verse, — 

“ I'm for the day. 

Put me away , 

And to-morrow play '.' 

Harold was a little sorrowful over 
this message ; he was so eager to try. 
He even tried to lift the cover of the 
little box, but it was useless to disobey 
the command of a magic thing. The 
cover would not move, do what he 
would, and he was forced to put it 
back ; and so the drawer shut itself up, 
and the box in his hand closed with a 
64 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


snap. So there was nothing to do but 
go back to bed and wait for morning, 
which, after all, was not a hard thing 
to do, as he was so tired out from his 
last two nights’ experience. 


DRAWER NO. Ill 
Being Invisible 

When he woke he went straight to 
the bureau, took his box, was delighted 
to see it open without any trouble, and 
soon had the little magic pill-box from 
Drawer No. III. in his hand. This 
time the cover came off, and disclosed 
to view two wafers, one red and one 
blue. They were lying side by side in 
the box. “ Red for going, Blue for 
coming,” was the rather mysterious 
inscription inside the box cover. On 
each wafer was written, “ Eat me.” 

Now, Harold was rather shy of trying 
any “ Eat me’s ” after Alice’s experience 
in Wonderland. But the desire to try 
s 6 5 


THE MAGIC KEY 


more of this wonder-working magic 
overcame his fears, and at last he 
bravely swallowed the red wafer. 
Nothing seemed to happen. Harold 
remained as he was, standing in his 
nightgown and bare feet before the 
bureau. He went over to the mirror 
to look for some change in himself, and 
there he discovered a strange thing 
indeed. Though he knew he stood in 
front of that glass, and was looking 
right in it, he could see no Harold in 
the mirror at all. He tried the hand 
mirror with the same results. Oh, he 
was invisible at last, then ! He pranced 
about the room in glee; he hurried 
into his clothes, which also became 
invisible as he put them on, and has- 
tened out into the hall to try the effect 
of his state. In the hall he met Jane, 
the housemaid. She paid not the 
slightest attention to him, though he 
went up close to her, but she went on 
singing about her work. He called out, 
“ Good-morning, Jane.” 

66 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


She started, looked all about and 
right through him as he stood there, 
and answered, “ Oh, good-mornin’, 
Master Harold. Where are you?” 

“Here,” he said, laughing, “right 
beside you.” 

“ Oh, go dong, sir,” she replied. 
“ You re hiding somewhere, an’ playin’ 
tricks on me.” 

It delighted Harold extremely to find 
she could really not see him. It was a 
most curious sensation. So he strolled 
along the hall to the stairs ; he slid 
down the balusters, and there was 
James taking in his uncle’s breakfast. 
He called, “ Hello, James,” at the top 
of his voice, and laughed to see the 
start James gave. 

“ Oh, now, Master Harold, wherever 
are you, to startle me like that? 
Come out of hiding, and go to your 
breakfast.” 

“I’m not hiding; I’m right here,” 
said Harold; and he hung on the but- 
ler’s arm. James did not seem to feel 
67 


THE MAGIC KEY 


his weight at all, but went on into the 
room, and set down his tray. 

“Here I am! Here I am!” said 
Harold, going all round him as he 
stood. James looked much bewildered, 
but evidently set it down to some hid- 
ing trick of Harold’s, and at last would 
not deign to look round when Harold 
said, “ I ’m here,” apparently right in 
his ear, and yet was not there when he 
looked around. 

So Harold went upstairs to his 
breakfast with Mrs. Bangs. 

She was in the middle of hers, and 
turned as the door opened and said, 
“ Come, Master Harold dear, you ’re 
late.” 

“Here I am,” said Harold, for the 
fortieth time that morning. 

“Where?” said Mrs. Bangs. 

“Why, right here” he said, mak- 
ing the last word come right at her 
elbow. 

“ Oh, now, dearie, no tricks,” she 
said. “ Don’t hide under the table. 

68 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


Sit up, and eat your breakfast that ’s 
getting cold.” 

Harold, for reply, pulled out his chair 
and sat down, took up his napkin, took 
an egg, and helped himself to butter, 
etc., finding that, while he was able to 
use each article, it did not become in- 
visible with himself. The effect was 
very curious ; and before he could get 
any further he saw Mrs. Bangs with 
her spoon half-way to her mouth, too 
much astonished to go on eating. 
There were Harold’s things going 
about the table, a chair, a napkin 
occupied, but no Harold visible. 

“ Goodness, gracious me , ” she cried 
at last, unable any longer to stand the 
sight of a spoon going up into vacancy 
at regular intervals, “what’s happen- 
ing ? Oh — ow, Master Harry, my dear, 
tell me where you are!” 

She was so thoroughly worried that 
Harold laid down his spoon and egg 
and said, “Well, Mrs. Bangs, you see 
I ’m invisible.” 


69 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“ Invisible /” said she. “Oh, my 
poor, dear little boy, however did that 
happen ? What shall I do ? ” 

“Don’t be frightened, dear Mrs. 
Bangs,” he said; “I’m all right, only 
you can’t see me. Do you see?” 

“No, I don’t see,” she said. “You 
are not here, and yet your egg is all 
eaten up. If I were blind, I could see 
that much.” 

“So is my breakfast all gone, Mrs. 
Bangs.” And Harold laughed merrily, 
and got up from his chair. “ See, I ’ll 
fold my napkin.” 

At this Mrs. Bangs jumped back 
from the table, and said: “Well, 
I never! No, really! And you can 
laugh. Well, then, it can’t hurt you, 
poor boy. Only, if you must be invis- 
ible, as you call it, do stay away from 
me. It do make me nervous to see 
such goings on among the table things. 
It s enough to make one dizzy. Go 
’long, now, there ’s a dear, and do come 
back in some better way.” 

70 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


“ I ’m gone,” laughed Harold, and 
left her muttering, — 

“Yes, poor dear, so you are gone. 
Ugh ! it fair gave me the shivers. I 
do believe that ’orrid old gent the 
Hindian has bewitched the boy with 
his ’orrid gift.” 

“ She ’s pretty near the truth,” thought 
Harold, as he ran upstairs. 

He got his school things together. 
He had quite a bit of fun along the 
way ; for he tried calling out “ Good- 
morning ” to different people, and see- 
ing them start, turn to speak, and, 
finding no one there, go on indignantly, 
as those who know a small boy’s trick 
of hiding and calling out, and despised 
them. 

Bill, the boot boy, was at the corner 
of the Square. “ Now for some fun,” 
thought Harold, and, walking up to 
the boy’s stand, he put his foot on the 
block, and said, “ Give me a shine, Bill.” 

Bill started up, was on his knees in 
a minute, rag and polish in hand, and 
7i 


THE MAGIC KEY 


then looked up to find no foot where 
he expected to. His look of blank 
amazement as he gazed into space was 
so comical that Harold shouted with 
laughter. 

“ Ow, what ’re ye givin’ us ? ” said 
Bill, rising in disgust. 

“ Shine my boots,” said Harold. 

“ Where ’s your boot, then ? ” said 
Bill. “Trot her out an’ I ’ll shine ’er, 
I tell ye.” He, too, thought Harold 
was hiding somewhere and trying to 
fool him. 

“ Right here,” said 
Harold, giving the 
block a kick as he 
spoke. The horror 
of seeing his block 
move and no one 
moving it, of hear- 
ing a voice and no one visible, quite 
overcame Bill. 

His spiky hair actually rose on end, 
and with a howl he grabbed up his 
kit and ran off down the street. “ It ’s 
72 



JAMES HELPS HAROLD 

harnted, that ’s what ’t is. I ’ll never 
try that ’ere corner again. It had a 
boy’s voice, too. Some poor chap from 
the school, I ’ll bet.” 

And it ever will be a mystery to 
poor Bill just what did happen at the 
corner of Stone Square that morning, 
and served him for many a day as a 
tale of horror to tell his chums, — 
“ The voice as ’ad no body, an’ w’at 
actilly moved my block.” 

Harold so far only thought of the 
fun of his experiment, but he began to 
realize after he had taken his seat in 
school that it might have its difficul- 
ties. For instance, when his name was 
called, he answered, “ Present,” and 
every eye turned to his empty seat and 
stared. The master thought it was 
some one answered out of turn, and 
called the name again. “Here, sir; 
present,” said the same voice, Harold’s 
voice. Things were late, and the name 
went down as “ present,” as the master 
thought he must be in the dressing- 
73 


THE MAGIC KEY 


room answering, or some such thing, 
and let it go. He knew his lessons 
well, and in class almost forgot his 
state, and was amazed to find the 
teacher skipped him every time he 
came round to his desk. Once Tom 
Green, the next boy, hesitated ; and 
Harold, who knew the question well, 
answered for him. Tom started, but 
let it go as his own answer. 

At first not much notice was taken 
by the busy boys about him of any- 
thing different in Harold’s seat; but at 
last Tom noticed and pointed out to 
the rest that things were a bit queer. 

When writing-time came, a copy- 
book came out of Harold’s desk, was 
laid on top, and the pen dipped itself 
in ink and wrote copy as if a real hand 
was there. Tom watched it curiously 
for a while, then he called Dick Brown’s 
attention to it in a whisper. They both 
watched; and Harold, forgetting for a 
moment in- his writing that he was 
not in sight, was suddenly startled by 
74 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


a hand being laid on the copy-book. 
Tom had leaned over and tried to take 
the copy-book up. Harold pulled it 
away, and whispered, “ Hold on, now, 
Tom; let me write — ” 

The effect of this voice on Tom was 
great. He jumped out of his seat with 



a cry, and ran up the aisle to the mas- 
ter’s desk, crying out : “ I ’ll not sit by 
a spook, — no, I won’t. Just look at 
that desk, Mr. Gray.” 

The astonished master rose and 
looked at the desk pointed out, while 
75 


THE MAGIC KEY 


the rest of the boys started out of their 
seats soon, and gathered all about 
Harold to behold the phenomenon of a 
copy writing itself on Harold Elmore’s 
desk, and no Harold there. 

Mr. Gray approached, and, looking 
over his glasses in a dazed way, said : 
“ Why, why, that ’s very curious. 
Harry, where are you?” 

Harold then rose and said, “ If you 
please, sir, I ’m here, but I ’m invisible.” 

These words, instead of explaining 
things, only seemed to make matters 
worse, and Mr. Gray became angry. 
Looking all about, he said: “Come, 
Elmore, no more of this nonsense — 
this child’s play. Come out of hiding.” 

“ I ’m right here, sir, and have fin- 
ished my copy,” said Harold, laying 
the neat copy-book on the desk in front 
of the doctors eyes. 

He could not explain such a mys- 
tery, and it seemed to make him exceed- 
ingly angry that he could not. So he 
thumped the desk with his ruler, and 
76 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


cried: “Well, sir, this is no joke. If 
you are, as you say, invisible, then 
come out of it at once; or else go 
home, and I ’ll report you to your 
uncle.” 

Harold’s time for appearing had 
come; so he felt in his pocket for the 
wafer, but, alas, it was not there. He 
had n’t thought of any such emergency, 
and had left the recovering wafer at 
home in the box. So he replied, 
“ Please, sir, I can’t ; but I ’ll go home 
and come back, and then I ’ll be here 
all right.” 

“ No, sir, you won’t,” roared the now 
thoroughly angry master. “ Whatever 
this joke is, it ’s beyond a joke. If 
you ’re hiding or trying any wise tricks, 
I ’ll cane you. I ’ll not have any of my 
pupils invisible. If you ’re invisible, 
as you say, go home, and I ’ll see about 
you.” 

But even in his foolish anger the 
master and all the boys fell back in 
amaze to see Harold’s copy-book fold 
77 


THE MAGIC KEY 


itself up, the ink-cover and pen go into 
place, and, looking to the peg where 
his coat and hat hung, saw both lifted 
down and disappear, and the door 
opened and shut, leaving the room in 
an astonished hush, as if no one dared 
move for some time. Harold looked 
in at one of the windows as he passed, 
and saw the teacher and boys all look- 
ing at his desk and things with such 
wonder written on their faces that he 
could not help laughing, though he 
realized that he had got himself into 
trouble, for his uncle was very particu- 
lar about his behavior and study in 
school, and was sure to be angry at a 
report of misconduct. But as he went 
home, though he felt pretty sober, he 
couldn’t resist trying another joke; so 
he went into the little shop where the 
boys from Mr. Gray’s school always 
got penny licks and toffy at recess. 
Harold opened the door, giving the bell 
a good jingling, and, walking up to 
the counter, said, “ Please give me a 
73 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


pennyworth of toffy,” laying down a 
penny as he spoke. 

The little fat woman, though amazed 
at seeing no form and only a voice 
demanding toffy, saw the penny, and 
supposed it to be some schoolboy trick 
of hiding; so she turned to the shelf. 
In a moment Harold went to her side 
and lifted down a jar of sweets from a 
shelf above, and poured out some on 
the counter. 

She started then ; yes, and screamed, 
“ Massy me, who are ye? Oh, Martha, 
come here! Why, ow, look at that, 
would ye ! ” and ended in a state of 
staring collapse as she saw the sweets 
wrap themselves up very nimbly in a 
bit of paper, the shop door opened and 
shut, and. a voice cried, “ Good-morning, 
Miss Wells,” and she was left alone 
with the penny on the counter. 

Harold did not stop to watch further, 
but ran home gayly, glad to find that 
he could eat sweets, and find them 
good too. A big policeman, no friend 
79 


THE MAGIC KEY 


to the boys of the Square, stood blink- 
ing on the corner; and Harold could 
not resist a bit of fun with him. He 
ran up behind, and pushed his big hel- 
met forward on his head. The indig- 
nant cop turned quickly about to club 
such a daring act, but saw no one; only 
a provoking small boy’s voice said in 
his ear: “Oh, ho, Mister 42, dozing 
again on your corner! You ’ll be put off 
the force soon.” It rather startled “ 42 ” 
to be thus taken to task, for it was 
true he did perhaps take a thought too 
much on a cold day and doze at his 
post ; but it was a boy’s voice, and he 
started for the voice in a rage. 

Oh, 42, you ’d better not take that 
trouble. This is no ordinary small boy’s 
voice, as you had to decide yourself 
after you’d chased it and hunted it all 
about the Square for a long while, and 
then just traced it up the steps of one 
of the best houses on the street, only to 
see a door opened and shut apparently 
by no one ! Stranger things than you 
80 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


knew of were happening in the Square 
that morning when a little boy tried 
Indian Magic in his every-day life. 

Harold ate his lunch alone, so no 
one was there to be worried over eata- 
bles disappearing and Harolds voice 
answering where no Harold was. He 
was very glad no one noticed his home 
coming to-day, for his mind was full of 
plans of jolly things he could do in his 
present state of invisibility. 

This time when he went out, he put 
the box with the other wafer marked 
“ For coming back, Eat me,” in his 
pocket in case of need. But indeed you 
can imagine he wished to keep in this 
novel state as long as possible, and did 
not want to “ come back ” into visible 
form until absolutely necessary, he 
felt so light and airy, and it was such 
fun to be able to go about where he 
wanted to, quite unobserved of any one. 

He decided to make a tour of the 
shops to see about things for his sisters 
and brothers for Christmas. So he 
81 


6 


THE MAGIC KEY 


sailed down the street gayly on the plat- 
form of a tram-car, right beside the 
driver, — a thing which he had always 
wanted to do, but was never allowed 
to before. 

It was such fun in the shops. Harold 
just went behind the counters out of the 
way of the crowds, and helped him- 
self to all he wished to look at. He 
did this carefully, and as the clerks 
were so busy he was able easily to 
escape their notice. He took the boxes 
he wished to examine over to an empty 
space behind some tall boxes, and 
looked at them to his heart’s content. 
Oh, how nice it was! He had always 
wanted to be able to do this, but a 
small-boy customer is rather at the 
mercy of a busy shop clerk, and usually 
ends by taking what the clerk recom- 
mends rather than what he wants him- 
self, just because he cannot look into 
them as closely as he wants to. 

In one place Harold was in luck, 
for in a retired corner there was an 
82 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


opened box of lovely large Noah’s 
arks, just the thing for Bob, and Harold 
was himself not too old to thoroughly 
enjoy the fun of setting out all the 
animals in a row and placing Mr. and 
Mrs. Noah at the head of the proces- 
sion. He became so absorbed in this 
that he did not notice anything going 
on about him till he was startled by 
a voice exclaiming, “ My stars, there 
goes another feller! Look at ’em. 
Who’s a-doin’ of this show? Come 
on, Pete, an’ look at this.” 

But Harold, a little afraid by this 
time of getting into trouble over his 
actions, stopped moving the animals 
about, and when Pete, the small 
errand-boy who was called up by 
his mate, reached the counter, every- 
thing was quiet and dumb as toys 
should be. 

“They was all a-movin’; yes, they 
was,” said the first boy, excitedly, “ an’ 
no one touched ’em.” 

“ Oh, what ’re ye givin’ us ? ” re- 

83 


THE MAGIC KEY 


marked Pete, disgustedly; “ they ain’t 
alive. How could them toys move?” 

He was so vexed at being stopped 
that it came near to being a fight. 
Harold, to save the toys from harm, 
picked them all up and put them into 
their box. “There,” cried Bob; and 
both boys were rooted to the spot 
with astonishment to see such strange 
doings. But as everything stayed in 
the box, they finally moved on to their 
work, and Harold followed them around 
the shop, adding to their bewilderment 
by making the toy cows move their 
heads and moo, the big natural-looking 
lions roar, and the music-rolls play 
all by themselves. 

“ Seems as if the toys was all be- 
witched,” the boys whispered to each 
other. 

When Harold had spent an hour or 
two in this pleasant way, he noticed 
how dark it was, and ran hastily out 
to catch his tram to go home. He had 
a good deal of difficulty about this, for 
84 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 

the conductors, on hearing his whistle 
to stop and not seeing any one signal- 
ling, either went oft before he could 
jump on, or else wouldn’t stop at all. 
At last he managed to get on with 
some one else, but found every seat 
engaged. Then a bright thought struck 
him ; and he selected the nicest, least 
tired-looking lap, and gently sat down 
on it. The man was hidden behind 
a newspaper, and actually looked up 
as Harold dropped into his lap, as if 
he felt him do so. But on seeing no 
one, his face lost its indignant look, 
and he went on reading. But you can 
fancy it was n’t very comfortable to 
have a paper rustling through one as 
the man turned it back and forth to 
read; and finally he crossed his legs, 
and Harold had no lap left to sit on. 
So he had to stand the rest of the 
way home, and was obliged to walk 
back some blocks, as he had the same 
trouble about getting the conductor to 
stop for no one to get off, and had to 
85 


THE MAGIC KEY 


wait until a real person stopped the 
car. 

He found his uncle already at din- 
ner, and he went straight to his place, 
and, actually forgetting his state and 
saying, “ I ’m sorry I ’m so late, uncle,” 
he drew out his chair and sat down. 

His uncle started at his voice, and 
said, “ Oh, Harry — ” Then, seeing no 
boy, thought he must have been mis- 
taken, and went on referring to his 
work and eating his dinner as usual. 

James was out of the room; so Har- 
old, who was very hungry, rose and 
helped himself to soup. He ate it all, 
as a hungry boy should, and looked up 
at the end to see James standing by 
his uncle's elbow and pointing to Har- 
old’s spoon as it was laid down after 
the last mouthful. They were both 
looking hard at Harold’s soup-plate, 
and indeed it must-have been a curious 
sight. Harold did not know whether 
it would help matters to speak or not, 
so he kept still. 


86 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


“ It was the same at breakfast, sir,” 
whispered James to Uncle Harold. 
“ Mrs. Bangs says that Master Har- 
old’s food all disappeared, an’ she even 
heard his voice, but no one ’s seen him 
all this day, sir.” 

His uncle looked mystified, but said, 
“ Put the beef on, James, and put his 
portion there as usual, and let us see.” 

So James, in solemn silence, helped 
Harold to beef and vegetables, and the 
two then were further astonished to 
see knife and fork going at a great 
pace, and all on the plate disappear- 
ing at a hungry-boy rate. His uncle 
was by this time much mystified, and 
looked quite anxious as he leaned for- 
ward and said, “ Harold, my boy, are 
you there?” 

Harold’s voice immediately replying, 
“ Yes, uncle, I ’m here,” had a startling 
effect; and James, no longer able to 
stand it, backed over to the door in 
terror. 

“Well, what is the matter?” con- 

87 


THE MAGIC KEY 


tinued his uncle. “ Why can we not 
see you ? ” 

Harold answered, “Why, I ’m invisi- 
ble, uncle ; that ’s all.” 

“ That ’s all ! ” echoed his uncle. 
“ But, child, how — where are you ? 
Where is your body ? ” 

“Why, uncle, I don’t know exactly. 
It ’s here with lots of roast beef and 
soup, I s’pose, but you can’t see me.” 

His uncle now became thoroughly 
alarmed. “ My boy, what have you 
done? What stuff have you taken to 
make you so? I can’t believe it. If 
you are really invisible, do something 
to show me the truth.” 

Harold reached over, and, taking a 
peach, peeled, and ate it nicely with his 
fork, James gasping at every motion, 
and his uncle’s perplexity increasing. 
Harold did not like to worry his uncle, 
but he did not wish to tell of his little 
key for fear of its being taken from 
him. So he hardly knew what to do. 

At last his uncle said, “ Has Pro- 
88 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


fessor Zaski anything to do with this 
strange phenomenon ? ” 

Harold thought a moment, and re- 
plied truthfully, “Yes.” For he did 
give him the key to get the magic 
wafers, and therefore was the cause 
of it. 

“ And is there no way out of it, my 
boy? Can you not come back?” said 
his uncle. 

He was so worried and distressed 
that Harold hastened to reply: “Yes, 
uncle, there is. There is another to 
swallow that will make me all right.” 

“Then I must certainly command 
you to do so at once,” said his uncle. 
“ This is horrible. You do not know 
how it makes me feel. You are in my 
care. I cannot have anything happen 
to you.” 

Reluctantly Harold took the little 
wafer from his pocket. “Oh, uncle, 
it ’s such fun,” he begged. 

“ No, sir, it is not fun,” replied his 
uncle, a bit sternly. “ I suppose this 
89 


THE MAGIC KEY 



explains a note I received from Dr. 
Gray to-day about your mysterious 
tricks, as he called them, in school. It 
90 


JAMES HELPS HAROLD 


will not do, my boy, to try such things 
in every-day affairs. If there is anyway 
of returning to yourself, do so at once.” 

So poor Harold was forced to put 
the blue wafer in his mouth, and on 
swallowing it he became the visible 
Harold they all knew, sitting there in 
his chair at the table. His uncle looked 
dazed, while James stared with a white 
face and stupefied look as the boy 
came into sight like a dissolving view 
on a sheet. 

“ Oh, now,” said his uncle, “ my dear 
boy, stay as you are, do, and try not 
to make us all so nervous again. Be 
very careful how you use any magic 
Professor Zaski gave you. He is a 
dangerous man. I will try to make an 
explanation to Master Gray, but it will 
not be an easy matter. It will not do, 
my boy. So be more, careful in future 
about meddling with magic.” 

His uncle was quite satisfied again, 
but poor Harold was rather disap- 
pointed at having his fun stopped 

91 


THE MAGIC KEY 


short. However, there were no more 
wafers, and even the box they were in 
disappeared as he ate the last one ; and 
so he went up to bed with only the 
memory of a wonderful experience, and 
took his real body into Mrs. Bangs’s 
room to say good-night, much to her 
satisfaction. “ For I was struck of a 
heap, Master Harold. Now, do, dear, 
never go off on tricks any more. ,, 

Harold sighed as he went off to bed, 
and “ I only wish I could,” he said. 


92 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


Chapter Four 

Buying for “ The Others ” 

N EXT morning Harold remem- 
bered that as it was nearing 
Easter holiday time, it was 
necessary for him to begin 
preparations on the box he intended 
sending to “The Others.” He felt very 
glad that it was a Saturday, as he 
would not have to face the school so 
soon, and perhaps they would have got 
over their impression before he went 
back on Monday. His uncle had said 
that he would write an excuse as well 
as he was able to Dr. Gray, trying 
to explain Harold’s strange behavior 
satisfactorily, if it were possible, and 
this would give him time to do so. 

As soon as he could that morning 
Harold set off down town with his two 
93 


THE MAGIC KEY 


guineas in his pocket. It was perhaps 
not so novel a feeling, nor so much 
fun, as it had been yesterday, and some 
way he felt very clumsy and heavy in 
getting on and off the street trams. 
However, it had its advantages, too. 
People could not walk right through 
him as if he were a ghost; and he 
found some satisfaction in the fact that 
now he could stop the cars without any 
trouble. 

He went straight to the shop of the 
Noah’s ark, and soon had that treasure 
done up to send to Bobby boy. He 
could not help smiling at the two cash- 
boys whom he recognized as the mys- 
tified couple of the day before. He 
could not resist saying to one of these 
boys, “ If these toys all get going 
some day of themselves, what will 
you do ? ” 

Instead of regarding him as a silly, 
they both looked at each other, and 
said with a nudge : “ Well, sir, they 
just do that sometimes now. They 
94 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


acted like they was bewitched only 
yesterday.” 

“ Oh, come, now,” said Harold, “you 
can’t expect me to believe that.” 

And he could not help laughing as 
they, instead of becoming pugnacious, 
meekly replied, “ Well, sir, you ’d hardly 
believe it, but they do, — they do, in- 
deed,” and went off, shaking their heads 
wisely, and glancing with awe at the 
rows of toys that a few days before had 
been simply wooden nothings to them. 
They had seen a strange thing, and 
had not forgotten yet. 

Harold was able to make his pur- 
chases very quickly, as he had chosen 
all very carefully the day before. He 
simply walked into the shops, pointed 
out his chosen article, and said, “ I ’ll 
take that.” And you know shopping 
under such circumstances is quickly 
done. So Harold soon went home to 
the joy of looking over his presents 
and packages, and putting them into 
boxes to send to the dear ones. The 
95 


THE MAGIC KEY 


pleasure of having so much money to 
spend, so very much mor< than he had 
ever had in his life before, was very 
great; and he felt glad and happy as 
he looked over the numerous things 
and addressed them in his best style. 

He had chosen a silver pen and 
pencil combined for the dear mother, 
and a little silver stamp-box for father; 
and they seemed to him the most ele- 
gant and appropriate articles he had 
ever seen, as he tied them up and put 
both in a small packet to go by the 
Indian mail, with love written in his 
boyish hand upon each wrapper, and, 
oh, so much of that same love wrapped 
up within the packets that he felt sure 
it must shine out and greet the eyes 
of those who opened them, however far 
away they were. This package James 
mailed at once for him, as it was very 
late to be sending it; but the rest could 
wait a week or so, and he lingered over 
the great pleasure of packing each one. 

Mrs. Bangs came to his aid in pack- 
96 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 

ing the boxes for the two at school. 
She insisted on adding a substantial 
box of goodies for them ; and a certain 
picture in Harold’s remembrance of a 
school-boy’s feast in a bedroom at night 
decided him that she was right. So 
the good-sized boxes were started, first 
with some of the sweets Harold had 
bought, then the gift for each, — a 
little writing-desk with pretty fittings 
for Dick, and a tiny gold ring with a 
pearl for the sister; and it was then 
Mrs. Bangs came out gloriously as a 
perfect packer of school boxes. She 
kept bringing things to add from time 
to time, and the cake she made for each 
was generous and delightful to behold. 
The two boxes stood in his room for 
some time, and each day some small 
thing was added, until it became evi- 
dent that it might be hard to get the 
covers to nail on properly. It was in- 
expressible joy to Harold, who was a 
very generous boy about giving, to 
prepare these surprises for the dear 
97 


7 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“ others/’ and for a day or two he was 
completely absorbed in it, and had no 
chance to try any more magic drawers 
for some evenings. 

Mrs. Bangs, too, seemed never will- 
ing to leave him alone. Whether she 
had been instructed by his uncle to 
watch him or not, Harold could not 
tell ; but this hardly seemed possible, 
for he seemed to have entirely forgotten 
that there had been any mystery in his 
home. So Harold came to the conclu- 
sion that Mrs. Bangs was watching 
him of her own accord, and so fearful 
of his becoming a terrifying object 
again, or something happening to him, 
that she never left him of an evening 
until she tucked him into bed. 

He waited until her fears had sub- 
sided, therefore, before he tried any 
more magic powers, having so much to 
occupy his mind and time in the pack- 
ing of those boxes, and as she was so 
good and kind, he hated to disobey or 
frighten her again. So he meekly al- 
98 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


lowed her to tuck him into bed and 
take away the light, and did not attempt 
to get up after she left, for she made 
him promise not to do so, each night, 
as she went. 

On the fourth night, however, she 
had been summoned to her sick sister 
again, and forgot all about exacting 
any promise to “be still and go to 
sleep ” from Harold, but bustled off in 
a great hurry, taking the lamp away 
to insure his not getting up. Ah, Mrs. 
Bangs, you do not know the nature of 
a boy who wants to do a thing. Scarcely 
had you gone from the house when 
this particular one was seen to sit up, 
to laugh out loud, and saying, “ She 
didn’t make me promise to-night,” creep 
out of bed, across the floor into the 
moonlight, to that gifted bureau loom- 
ing up like a treasure house in a 
lighted corner of the room. 


L.ofC. 


99 


THE MAGIC KEY 


DRAWER NO. IV 
Silver Magic 

Eagerly unlocking the next drawer, 
which Harold could now reach from 
the ottoman instead of having to climb 
on a chair, he was rewarded by seeing 
a small velvet-covered jeweller’s box 
lying there alone. Taking it over to a 
window, where pulling up a blind let in 
the light from the street lamp, Harold 
opened and examined the contents. A 
curious-looking silver ring lay there in 
the box, with a large stone set in it. 
The stone was white, and seemed to 
glow faintly in the light ; and though 
the ring looked large, yet when Harold 
slipped it on his middle finger it seemed 
to shrink so that it fitted him, and 
when he tried to remove it he found 
that quite impossible. So he dressed 
himself hastily, feeling now sure that 
he must try his magic, as it seemed 
determined to make him do so. 

The ring sparkled and shone all the 
ioo 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


while he was dressing. But while it 
was a white stone, it was not at all like 
a diamond ; more like an opal with no 
color, only a sort of pale white light in 
it. Looking more closely at the box, 
Harold discovered these words in tiny 
writing on the bottom, — 

“ White shines my light; 

Use me aright , 

I make all bright 

He put away the box and shut the 
drawer, then stood wondering over the 
verse and what was meant to do 
with the ring. He laid it, on his finger, 
on the back of a chair to gaze on it, 
and it happened that in so doing the 
stone of the ring brushed against the 
wood-work of the chair-top. Harold 
was surprised to notice this look sud- 
denly very bright ; but on looking 
closer he saw that the wood was silver, 
— pure, shining silver. His magic ring 
had touched it. This, then, was the 
delightful power it possessed, to turn 
all things into silver that it touched. 

IOI 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“ Oh,” thought Harold, “ how splendid ! 
How can any wrong come of such a 
power? Why, I ’ll turn lots of things, 
and be rich with so much silver.” So 
he hastened to turn his pennies out, 
and, touching them one by one with 
the stone in his ring, was delighted to 
see them all turn into pure silver. To 
be sure, they were stamped one penny, 
but surely, Harold thought, they must 
now be of greater value, being pure 
silver, than even shillings are. 

Eagerly he ran about the room, 
choosing what should come under the 
magical change. The bronze clock 
became white and shining silver. He 
thought that the little warrior looked 
at him a bit reproachfully as he did so, 
as if he thought bronze a much better 
metal for a warrior. Harold’s brush 
and comb became silver, and all the 
articles on his dressing-table, and very 
beautiful they looked as they lay there. 
“I’ll add my hand-mirror to Jessie’s 
box,” he said ; “ she ’ll be so pleased.” 

102 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


The figures on the mantelpiece, the 
picture-frames, the window-curtain fast- 
enings, the fire-irons, the fender, and 
even the old black coal-hod, — all were 
turned into silver by the wonderful 
little ring, and Harold never tired of 
seeing them turn. His brass bed be- 
came a lovely thing, fit for a princess 
in its silvery dress. The chairs came 
next, and soon all the furniture in the 
room shone out in pure white silver. 
The effect was fairy-like and pretty, and 
Harold stood and admired it long. He 
then touched all the buttons on his 
clothes into silver; and it was while 
doing this that he suddenly realized 
that the ring might become a worker 
of wrong. For he accidentally touched 
the stone, in the centre of which the 
power seemed to lie, against his cuff, 
and instantly, to his amazement, he 
found himself in a silver cuff, which, 
though pretty, was not exactly pleasing 
nor comfortable, being extremely stiff 
and cold about his wrist. 

103 


THE MAGIC KEY 


He unbuttoned it carefully, there- 
fore, and laid it aside, resolved to be 
more careful; but in taking it off the 
stone again brushed his coat-sleeve, 
which instantly stiffened into unbend- 
ing silver. Harold had hard work to 
get out of the jacket, but when he did 
he touched it all over as it hung on the 
bed, and soon had a fine silver jacket, 
much more comfortable off than on, 
however beautiful to look at. Harold 
even thought of turning some of his 
gifts in the boxes lying there into the 
precious metal, but the fear of turning 
by accident the lovely cakes and sweets 
into such undesirable and useless stiff- 
ness made him afraid to do much. So 
he contented himself with touching the 
outside wrappings of every article with 
the stone in the ring, and even the 
strings of the packages soon were all 
silver. 

At last, satisfied with his success, 
Harold lay down in bed, looking at his 
room all about him in its shining glory 
104 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS 


with great pride and joy. The more 
he looked, the more he felt tempted 
to try ; and he even leaned out, as an 
after thought, and touched his shoes 
till they lay beside the bed in shining 
whiteness. “ I ’ll never have to blacken 
them now, and I can wash the mud 
right off,” he thought. 

He lay looking all about and dream- 
ing dreams of riches in the days to 
come, — of how he’d turn everything 
he owned, and send it all to father, and 
make him rich, — keeping his finger 
carefully closed away from contact with 
the magic stone; and he was so very 
tired with the excitement of it all that 
he fell asleep in the midst of his sil- 
very dreams. 

He awoke very early next morn- 
ing with a cold, uncomfortable feeling 
about his head. He raised it, and 
when he let it drop upon the pillow he 
received a very hard thump. Then he 
sat up and saw what had happened. 
In his sleep he had thrown his hand 

105 


THE MAGIC KEY 


back on the pillow, and the ring had 
touched it and lain there till the whole 
pillow was a silver mass, very pretty 
and remarkably wonderful to look at, 
but of no use as a pillow any longer, 
— just a hard, rocky lump of silver. 
There came into Harold’s mind a tale 
he had heard once of a king who had 
the power of turning things into gold; 
King Midas was the name. Doubtless 
you have all heard of him too, and of 
how at last his beloved little daughter 
became a golden statue. The thought 
of such a possibility as this made Har- 
old very frightened, and he resolved 
to take every precaution against letting 
that ring touch anything accidentally. 
He was very curious as to whether it 
could turn a living thing; and so he 
went to the window in the first rays 
of sunrise, as he was afraid to go to 
sleep again, and, finding a sleepy fly 
there, touched its back again and again 
with the ring. But no change came in 
the fly. He simply buzzed his wings 
106 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


indignantly and flew off, to Harold’s 
real delight, for he was now less afraid 
of trouble. 

Then a happy thought came to him. 
He put a thick glove on the hand over 
the ring, which was luckily his left 
hand, and this seemed to prevent the 
power to come through; and though 
the finger of the glove rapidly stiffened 
into silver, it was so loose as to slip off 
with the rest of the glove. So Harold 
was able to dress himself without fur- 
ther trouble. 

His room was indeed a most remark- 
able place to behold, and it all seemed 
so unreal that he hastened to try the 
effect of this new magic on another 
person. He waited until he heard Jane 
“ doing ” the grates downstairs, and 
then he went down. 

“Jane,” he said, holding his hand 
carefully behind him, “ I have a strange 
and wonderful magic power. I can 
turn things into silver.” 

The girl exclaimed, first in amaze- 
107 


THE MAGIC KEY 


ment, then half in alarm, and was 
wholly incredulous, till Harold drew 
forth his hand in triumph and pointed 
to the silver finger of the glove. 


(( _ b n a i , 

f p iiiiiptiiit'pli 'iiiinfiii psi' Uliiiii iin!!ai mu ii'W!i§i’ : ~ 



Then drawing it off, he touched the 
ring stone first to the fender and then 
the grate, which both before the aston- 
ished eyes of Jane became white and 
shining silver. “The Saints preserve 
us, Master Harold,” she exclaimed. 

108 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


“Ye’ve got a power indeed; don’t ye 
be after touchin’ me wid it, but I ’d be 
much obliged if ye’d turn some trink- 
ets of mine if ye will.” 

Jane took a little box from her pocket, 
and emptied out her few treasures. A 
little wooden heart and steel chain, 
a brass thimble, her rosary beads, and 
a pin of brassy-looking material, all 
became lovely and valuable at the 
touch of the magic little stone, and her 
joy was a delight to Harold. They 
were absolved in this excitement when 
James looked in at the door. His face 
clouded at the first mention of magic, 
and he pretended to wish to have noth- 
ing to do with it, after his fright over 
Harold the other day; but his curiosity 
became too much for him, and he was 
soon handing out pennies and various 
articles to become silver, and having 
his buttons turned into real shining 
silver as he stood. They turned several 
articles about the room, and then, all 
else but the wonderful accomplish- 
109 


THE MAGIC KEY 


ment forgotten, they went down to the 
kitchen to exhibit the things to Cook. 

She was almost superstitious about 
it, and would not let Harold come near 
her at all, but allowed Jane to bring 
out some of her little possessions and 
exclaimed in delight as each became 
silver. At last she went into her room 
and brought in a small bag, out of 
which she emptied a pile of coppers, 
pennies, halfpence, and farthings, — all 
her “plate money” put by for church, — 
and when piece after piece of this was 
turned, the other servants followed 
her example and had all their loose 
coppers made silver. It never seemed 
to occur to them that the penny stamp 
made the value of the coin, but they 
believed implicitly that the silver in- 
creased the value at once, and of course 
a small boy like Harold could not tell 
them any better. The bell had to ring 
for some time before this absorbed 
group of people could pay any attention, 
and suddenly the door opened, and Mrs. 

I TO 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


Bangs stood indignantly among them. 
“What is the matter with you all?” 
she exclaimed ; “ here ’s Master been 
ringing his bells off and no sign of 
breakfast.” They tried to explain to 
her, but at the word of Master Harold’s 
magic, she gave one look of despair 
and horror at the silver articles on the 
table, and crying out, “I ’ll not hear a 
word of magic, if you please,” she 
turned and went out of the room and 
up the stairs as fast as she could go, 
with her hands over her ears and a look 
of distress on her face. She would 
have nothing whatever to do with it, 
and only gave a glance of despair into 
Harold’s room when he begged her to 
look at all its “wonders.” “Oh, my 
poor boy,” she exclaimed. “Be sure 
harm will come of that awful magic. 
I ’ll have none of it, no, not if you was 
to turn everything in the house into 
pure gold. Be warned, dear Master 
Harold; it will sure bring you harm, 
as all the rest of it did.” 


1 1 1 


THE MAGIC KEY 


But Harold did not, could not im- 
agine how such a lovely power could 
ever work evil on any one. And 
James and the rest allowed themselves 
to be carried away by the thought of 
real silver and its glitter coming at 
their command, and their eagerness 
and praise at the beauty of Harold’s 
belongings were all convincing to the 
boy that surely here was a gift all 
for good, and with no evil consequences 
so long as he only turned the proper 
articles into silver. 

But Mrs. Bangs shut herself in her 
room, with her prophecy of evil, and 
would not even look at the things 
Harold had turned. And then the evil 
came. In a most unexpected way, to 
be sure, but it ended as all these magic 
things seemed to end, in sorrow, and 
in this case even tears, in the house- 
hold. 

It was in this way. Harold went 
after breakfast up to his room. On 
the way he met Jane coming down. 

1 1 2 


BUYINCx FOR “THE OTHERS 


She did not speak to him, but whisked 
out of sight down the kitchen hall. 
Harold took a good look at his lovely 
room, and was sauntering over to his 
desk when he seemed to miss some- 
thing. His mirror, the pretty hand 
mirror he had turned into such a beauty 
for Jessie, was gone, and on looking 
closer at every place he saw that there 
was a small article gone from each. 
The brush and comb, the mirror from 
his dressing-table, his inkstand and 
pen and rack from his desk, the two 
silver ornaments from the mantel, — 
something was gone from everywhere. 
In his surprise he ran over to Mrs. 
Bangs’s room and called out to her, 
“ Oh, Mrs. Bangs dear, some of my 
things are gone; have you put them 
away?” and she surprised him by 
saying at once, — 

“ There, there, oh, I knew it. 
Trouble has got to come to such a 
power, an’ to them as uses magic.” 

She made Harold feel very sad in- 

s 113 


THE MAGIC KEY 


deed, for a sudden thought struck him : 
Jane! She had been up to his room 
and had taken the things ! He told 
his fears to Mrs. Bangs, who only 
added to his sorrow by saying she 
firmly believed the poor thing had been 
tempted by the wicked stuff to steal 
and to lose her character. She rang 
the bell at once for Jane, and the scene 
that followed was very sad and painful 
to poor Harold. Jane stoutly denied 
having taken anything, all the time 
showing by her manner how guilty 
she really was. Things were getting 
very unpleasant indeed. James was 
called in, but his manner was not one 
to settle the bad matter very happily. 
He got so exasperated, at last, as to 
declare he would send at once for “ the 
police,” and it was just as things 
reached this unpleasant point that 
Harold, who felt most deeply sorry 
for poor Jane, that he had brought her 
into any trouble, went up to her and 
put his hand on her arm to whisper, 
114 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS” 


“ Never mind, Jane, you can have 
them;” and as he did so, he felt an 
unpleasant shock in his finger which 
made him look at the ring still upon 
it. It was dull and black, all the fire 
and pretty silver had gone ! He held 
it up with an exclamation of surprise, 
and Jane at once burst into tears, sink- 
ing down and crying out, “Oh, it’s me. 
I am a wicked one ; the ring has found 
me out ; I stole the things.” 

Harold felt as if the ring had become 
a hateful thing indeed, and tried again 
to take it off his finger; and this time 
he had no trouble. It slipped off 
easily, and lay in his hand a dull thing 
with a black-looking stone in place of 
the pretty white shining one they had 
known. It fell on the floor, and though 
they all shrank away as if it was some 
evil thing, they soon saw that its power 
had gone and it was quite harmless, 
for in its fall it touched several things 
without altering them at all. Jane 
went sobbing downstairs and returned, 
”5 


THE MAGIC KEY 


bringing all the articles she had taken 
gathered up in her apron, but what 
a strange-looking bundle they were ! 
Instead of shining silver each was 
simply a black and tarnished-looking 
thing, beautiful no longer! Harold 
went at once to his room, and beheld 
a change indeed. Everywhere were 
blackened things of no beauty what- 
ever, where had been silver that 
morning. 

Mrs. Bangs followed him and be- 
moaned the sad spoiled state of things. 
Harold’s pillow was indeed a most 
ridiculous-looking blackened lump, like 
a soiled pillow slip, to be sent at once 
to the wash by Mrs. Bangs, who was 
quite triumphant and much more cheer- 
ful in her triumph over the fall of the 
magic power than she had been all day 
over its glory. 

Cook came raging up from the 
kitchen with a handful of tarnished and 
blackened coppers, and James was dis- 
gusted to find shabby and unpolished 
1 16 


BUYING FOR “THE OTHERS 


buttons all over his once elegant attire. 
All bore the same witness. Every- 
where they found only blackness where 
once it had been silver by Harold’s 
magic ring. 

The ring itself seemed to have rolled 
away, for they could never find it again. 
This, then, was the wrong it worked, to 
tempt the poor girl to steal, and then 
on its touching her its power had gone 
forever. Harold went sadly into his 
room and climbed up to take another 
look at the empty box. He noticed a 
new line of writing where the ring had 
lain, — 

“If used aright , 

I make things bright , 

But guilt alack ! 

Will turn me black'.' 

All around him he heard mutterings 
of the vexed, amazed servants, and Cook 
and James, as they passed downstairs, 
said in a very cross manner, “What 
could one expect from a boy’s tricks? 

117 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Magic indeed! Some silver paste or 
other he pasted over the things, and 
now all this muss to clean up.” 

Poor silly Jane had lost her charac- 
ter, and all the household seemed sad 
and gloomy at once ; and as he read 
that sentence, the drawer closed with a 
snap, and left Harold to ponder over 
the words and draw his own lesson 
therefrom. 

It was very plain, and Harold even 
felt that he might be glad if the other 
drawers that were left to explore 
would not open at all. He was getting 
very respectful toward this wonderful 
magic ! 


1 18 


HAROLD WAITS AND WRITES 


Chapter Five 

Harold waits and writes 

S O for a day or two Harold yielded 
to his fears and did not touch 
any more magic, though he 
sorely longed to. 

During these days he got letters from 
Jessie and Dick and also one from 
Aunt Laura about little Bob. Now I 
must tell you a strange thing about 
these letters. Dick wrote of having a 
feast in his bedroom, and described the 
Master coming in and all having to 
hide just exactly as Harold had wit- 
nessed it in his magic picture roll. 
And Jessie wrote of a party which had 
been held at her school where she had 
had such a good time. “ But do you 
know, Harold dear,” she added, “ I felt 
so lonely for you that night I just had 
to kiss your photo ! ” 

119 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Now, didn’t that seem strange? 
Harold knew that the picture was a 
real view of what they had been doing. 
Oh, but this magic was wonderful. 
And Aunt Laura wrote of Baby Bob’s 
slight illness. “But he quickly recov- 
ered one night,” she said, “and is all 
right now.” 

“Yes,” said Harold, “I knew that 
before.” 

Then he resolved to spend the even- 
ings writing about his strange experi- 
ences in order not to forget the details, 
when he came to relate it to the others, 
whenever that happy time might be. 
He put it all in a journal, just the bare 
facts, such as this, “To-day I opened 
the third drawer and became invisible,” 
and so on, through the whole list, un- 
til he had a nice little book planned 
out with which to convince Dick 
and Jess, when he saw them, that the 
strange events were real; and in fact 
it was from this diary of his that I 
got all the wonderful doings of those 

I 20 


HAROLD WAITS AND WRITES 


days and am able to tell them here 
to you. 

This occupied him for several nights, 
until the excitement of the household 
over the silver mystery all died away, 
and he felt that they were no longer 
watching him. There were still more 
drawers left, and on the third evening 
his longing to see more overcame him, 
and he felt that now he could with 
safety close his door and insert the 
little key which opened the fifth 
drawer. 


DRAWER NO. V 
The Power of Strength 

And there he found a little bottle 
with the inscription “Drink of me,” 
and a folded paper beneath further told 
him the uses of the liquid, — 

“ Strength I give 
To those who live ; 

What race you run 
Is always won I 

I 2 I 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Here was a new and delightful magic 
indeed. To Harold, who was never a 
very strong boy and who was nearly 
always beaten in any races he tried 
with his fellows, it seemed a precious 
thing indeed. He drank a few drops 
at once, and instantly a feeling of great 
strength and power went through him, 
and he could not resist opening his 
door and racing at full speed down the 
hall and stairs to James’s great amaze- 
ment. 

“I am only exercising,” he called, 
as he flew past; and indeed flying 
is the best way to describe it, for Har- 
old seemed scarcely to touch the floor, 
but sped along like something run by 
electricity. 

“Whew!” said James, in amaze- 
ment, “ I should think you were 
exercising. I ’ll run you a race, 
Master Harold.” He felt sure of 
beating, for they had run races before 
up and down the long empty hall of 
an evening. 


122 


HAROLD WAITS AND WRITES 



Harold was delighted with 
this test of his powers, but 
poor James simply stood no 
chance at all, as Harold 
seemed to fly along their 
course, and even doubled 
on the track and ran back 
before James could get to 
the first goal. 

“My, Master Harold, but 
you ’re lively,” said James, 
“ you ’re getting strong lately. 
Any more magic in this, 
hey? ? ’ He said this in joke, be- 
cause it did not occur to him that 
such could be the case. 

“ Right you are,” said Harold; 

“ I ’ve got a power ; ” and 
off he ran upstairs to bed, 
leaving James breathless 
and surprised. 

Harold was not even 
tired, and he carefully 
put away the bottle till C'/a 
the morning to amaze 
12 3 



THE MAGIC KEY 


his schoolmates. “Won’t they be jolly 
surprised to see me win the races and 
things ? ” he thought with glee ; and 
he was so full of it that he fell asleep 
planning all sorts of ways to try it for 
their benefit and wonder. 

And so next day the little boy tucked 
his bottle in his pocket when he went 
to school. The boys whom he had 
not seen on account of the few holidays 
since that last day of invisibility were 
all ready for him, and shouted out, 
“Helloa, magician! Vanish, can’t you? 
What else can you do?” and all sorts 
of jokes were flung at him until school 
opened. 

Dr. Gray only said to Harold, “Your 
uncle’s explanation is accepted, El- 
more; take your seat with the rest, 
and try not to disturb the school by 
any more tricks,” at which the boys 
all grinned. 

“ You can smile now,” thought 
Harold, “ but I can smile in return 
soon, for I’ll have you all think- 
124 


HAROLD WAITS AND WRITES 


in g differently at recess; see if I 
don’t ! ” and he did, indeed, for 
when they all gathered about him to 
tease and ask him if he could do 
anything but vanish, he said at once, 
“Yes, I can beat any of you fellows 
at running. ,, 

At this a shout was raised. “He 
can run,” said Rob Wright, the cham- 
pion runner of the school. “Elmore 
can beat a race,” he says ; and with the 
memory of more races than one in 
which he had been left far behind, this 
did seem a joke. “Well, let’s see him 
do it.” 

Harold, making an excuse to fetch 
his hat, swallowed a mouthful from the 
little bottle in his pocket, and came back 
feeling equal to any and every thing. 
Amidst smiles and shouts of derision 
he and Rob toed the line together, 
and then were started on a race. And 
such a race as it was. Surely it was 
hardly fair to call it a race, when one 
poor boy, not Harold, was left so very 
125 


THE MAGIC KEY 


far behind, doubled on, and beaten in 
no time at all. 

A more astonished set of boys could 
not well be found. With one accord 
they beset Harold, who did not even 
seem hot after his achievements, and 
slapped him on the back, and praised 
him in boyish fashion ; and the school 
bell ringing interrupted them planning 
a race or set of races to be held on the 
Common that very afternoon, in which 
Harold declared so confidently that he 
could and would win every honor for 
his class. Most respectful were the 
glances now sent him the rest of the 
school time, and he was compelled to 
race everybody all the way home, which 
he easily did, having taken another 
mouthful from the precious bottle on 
the sly. 

That afternoon, on the Common, 
there was a scene of great triumph 
for Harold and his school. Harold 
easily and fleetly won every race, even 
the high jumping. The boys from 
126 









































. 

















♦ 






















































































































»■ 




HAROLD WAITS AND WRITES 


other schools who came to try him 
were also beaten, and so with one 
accord he was carried about the 
ground by his triumphant school- 
fellows, who were proud and delighted 
at his powers. Only one of them 
seemed to think it mighty queer that 
such a poor runner as Elmore should 
so suddenly show such wonderful 
speed; and that was Rob Wright, the 
hitherto champion of the school. He 
walked home with Harold, and tried 
to get a clue to the mystery. 

Now Harold had always admired 
Rob very much, and was glad and 
proud of his sudden friendship. He 
did not hesitate long when Rob asked 
him what had come over him, for he 
felt sure Rob was a boy of honor and 
would keep his secret. So he told 
him of the wonderful thing which he 
possessed. He did not tell of the 
magic bureau for fear of not being 
believed. He only explained that he 
had been given a magic key by a queer 
127 


THE MAGIC KEY 


old gentleman, — a key which unlocked 
this little bottle of precious fluid ; and 
though Rob was at first very incredu- 
lous, still he could not help recalling 
the proof of Harold’s sudden power, 
and he believed and asked to come in 
and talk it over with Harold. Harold 
was pleased and delighted to have some 
one of his own age at last to talk over 
the wonderful magic with. So when 
they were in Harold’s room a grand 
plan struck them both. Harold said 
very generously, “Why don’t you try 
some of it, Rob, and together we’ll 
beat all the races at the show to- 
morrow ? ” 

Rob was only too glad to do so, and 
the only condition Harold exacted from 
him was a promise never to reveal his 
secret. And this promise faithfully 
given, the two boys solemnly shook 
hands over it, and each taking a little 
of the precious drink, they started on 
a race together around the Square. 
Now it was a queer thing that hap- 
128 


I 


HAROLD WAITS AND WRITES 


pened. They both ran together side 
by side, and neither could, try as they 
might, get ahead of the other. This 
only made them more pleased, as it 
at once decided them that to use it 
together was the best way. 

Next day the boys at Mr. Gray’s 
school planned to have a great time 
on the Common, and when Harold and 
Rob both stood up to race, they first 
laughed at Rob for trying, and then, 
when they found that he too seemed 
to share whatever power Harold pos- 
sessed, their joy knew no bounds, and 
when race after race was won by the 
two fleet boys, and even a jumping- 
match from two famous jumpers in a 
neighboring school, Harold and Rob 
were heroes. 

All would have gone well as far as 
Harold and Rob were concerned, but 
a sad jealousy arose among the boys 
of the neighboring school, and after 
the sports were over, and Rob had left 
Harold, two of the rough boys of this 
129 


9 


THE MAGIC KEY 


school followed him, and in a quiet 
place on the street suddenly seized 
him by the shoulder and demanded 
that he should tell them the secret of 
how he came to run so swiftly. They 
knew it must be some new power, 
though they did not guess that it 
could be real magic. 
Harold, in despair, and 
eager to get away from 
them in safety, took his 
bottle from his pocket 
and tried to swallow a 
few drops in order to 
get strength to run. 

“Oh ho!” said one 
of them; “it’s in that 
bottle, is it? Give it here then, 
sonny.” But of course Harold meant 
to do nothing of the sort, and there 
was a lively scuffle in which, alas, the 
precious little bottle was dropped on 
the stones and broken into bits ! 
Harold screamed then, and the boys 
ran off, as a policeman came up, sur- 
130 



HAROLD WAITS AND WRITES 


prised to find only a small boy wailing 
over a broken bottle, almost in tears. 

“ All this fuss over a little broken 
bottle, sonny? Why, why ! ” said Mr. 
Policeman. 

“Oh,” Harold cried, “but you see it 
was magic, it was magic ! ” 

“Magic was it?” exclaimed the 
policeman, who did n’t in the least 
understand what Harold meant. “Oh, 
well, don’t mind, you trot away home 
and get some more.” But Harold 
knew this was not possible, and he re- 
turned slowly and sadly to the house he 
had left so gayly in the morning. 

That evening, as he sat over the fire 
thinking of it all, he came to the con- 
clusion that the magic all seemed 
most short-lived, and that it must 
have been meant to last one day only, 
as in every case the end had come so 
soon (this bottle having lasted longer 
than the rest), and he hadn’t the heart 
to try any more drawers that night, 
but went off to bed and dreams. 

I3 1 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Chapter Six 

Rob's Punishment 

P OOR Harold had to take his 
courage strongly in hand in 
order to meet Rob and tell 
him of the dire catastrophe. 
And all the other boys — how could 
he face them ? He began to repent 
that he shared any of the secret with 
any one, for it only seemed to make 
trouble. So it was with a very heavy 
heart that he sought Rob on the way 
to school, and told him about the loss 
of their magic power. 

Rob was at first most sorrowful. 
“ Oh, Harold, what will the fellows 
think ! ” was his first exclamation. 
Then he was angry at the roughs who 
broke it, and he and Harold resolved 
to punish them. And it was in this 
132 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


way that they managed to break the 
hardest of their news to the rest of 
the boys. 

Rob decided that the only way was 
to tell them the whole thing, — that 
they really had possessed a magic 
bottle of stuff for those few brief 
hours, — and then to tell them of its 
loss, and interest them in a plan for 
punishing the thieves. The two 
rough big boys were old enemies of 
Dr. Gray’s school, being the worst 
ones in the other school, who had 
always bullied the younger boys of 
Stone Square on every occasion pos- 
sible. 

Well, Rob’s plan worked pretty 
nicely with the boys. It was just as 
he thought. They were sorry and 
amazed at first, and I don’t think 
they ’d have believed it about the stuff 
in the bottle, if it had not been for the 
fact of its having been broken and all 
that. And then all their energies were 
bent on a plan to punish their foes, 
i33 


THE MAGIC KEY 


the Brown school boys. So after 
school the Gray boys all assembled 
and held a solemn conclave, and this 
was decided. 

Now, perhaps it was n’t very good 
nor kind in the boys to do what they 
did, but they felt so strongly that the 
others needed punishment for their 
meanness that maybe they were a bit 
excusable. See what you think about it. 
They decided to give those boys a 
dose. You see the Brown boys were 
sure of the stuff having been in a 
bottle, for they saw it and broke it, 
and they knew it must have held some 
extraordinary power, for those two 
Gray boys certainly showed it that 
day, and they would think they prob- 
ably had more. So the Gray boys 
prepared a bottle for them. It was 
composed of a stuff which a boy got 
from his druggist father, perfectly 
harmless, but of a frightful taste, and 
such a lasting one that nothing would 
wash it out for ever so long. 

i34 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


It does not seem to me it was such 
a very bad thing when the others 
had done a very mean act. Well, this 
bottle of stuff was left in Harold’s coat- 
pocket thrown on the grass, when the 
boys went to play cricket on the Com- 
mon that very afternoon, for Rob said, 
“ We’ll leave it there, and if they show 
meanness enough to steal it, let ’em 
have it and all they deserve.” 

And in the middle of the afternoon 
such roars and howls came from a 
group of boys in a corner of the Com- 
mon that the Gray boys at once knew 
what had happened, and their hour of 
triumph came. They dashed over and 
beheld two of their enemies with 
awful faces and in spasms of disgust, 
and with one accord the cry of “ Thief 
meddling with our jackets ! ” was raised, 
and the two culprits were forced to flee 
from the rush that was made upon 
them, as they were driven in disgrace 
from the field. 

Rob still continued Harold’s good 
i35 


THE MAGIC KEY 


friend in spite of their disappointment, 
though Harold had made up his mind 
that it would not do to try to share the 
magic power again, and therefore re- 
sisted Rob’s coaxing to unlock another 
drawer someday and let him see. He 
told Rob that he knew it would not 
work right, and showed him the verse 
about not sharing it with any one. 
But Rob was not convinced that it 
could not do for him, too, and though 
Harold promised that if the next se- 
cret could be shared by any one, he, 
Rob, should be the one he would 
choose to share it, Rob was not con- 
tent. He came and spent some happy 
hours with Harold among all the 
games and toys, but the greatest of all 
their enjoyments was for Harold to re- 
late to Rob all his experiences with 
the wonderful chest, under promise of 
strict secrecy on Rob’s part. 

Harold was called away one day 
when Rob was there, and Rob was left 
alone with the wonder chest. It was 
136 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


rather more than he could stand. He 
felt that he must try what he could do 
with the key. 

It was not right of him, of course, 
when his friend trusted him. Well, so 
this is what happened. Harold had left 
the box and key on his desk, and there 
stood the bureau; so Rob got a chair 
and tried first one hole and then an- 
other, forgetting which ones Harold 
had told him he had used already, but 
no response came from any of the 
dragon’s eyes in any drawer. Then 
he got down on the floor, and looking 
up under the chest in hopes of seeing 
some crack that he could peek in, 
there he did see distinctly a tiny 
crack away back under the last drawer. 
Then he did a very wrong thing, — in 
his excitement he forgot his honor 
to his friend’s belongings, forgot his 
promise, forgot everything except that 
lie must get an opening into that 
chest some way or other. And he 
actually took his penknife and inserted 
i37 


THE MAGIC KEY 

the point of a blade in the crack. A 
strange thing happened then. With 
a whizz and a puff out came a cloud 
of fiery powder in his 
eyes, nose, and mouth! 

Spluttering and 
sneezing and choking, 
he rushed away to the 
middle of the floor, and 
turning, beheld through his tears 
Harold looking at him curiously and 
a little suspiciously. Poor Rob, he 
felt so mean and rather frightened. 

“What did you do? ” said Harold. 

“What did I do?” angrily exclaimed 
Rob. “ What stuff do you keep in your 
room? That horrid old chest is just 
full of awful dust or something. I 
only looked under it and was poking 
it, when a whole cloud of burning dust 
came in my face. I believe it ’s some 
of your tricks you ’ve played on a 
fellow, getting me to believe there is 
something great in your old chest, and 
there ’s nothing there but dust.” 

138 



ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


“ Oh,” said Harold, “ I see, you 
thought you ’d try the magic too. 
Well, you see for yourself, now, that 
two can’t share it. It never puffed 
dust at me.” 

But by this time Rob’s eyes were 
all right, and he said a little less 
touchily, “ Oh, I guess it ’s pretty 
dusty under there, and I got a whiff 
of it when I looked under to see if 
it was carved underneath as well as 
on top.” 

Harold accepted this explanation 
quietly, but he knew by his own ex- 
periences what this wonder chest was 
capable of, and he was firmly convinced 
that it held its richness now for him 
alone. 

Rob soon went home, casting a fur- 
tive glance at the chest as he went, and 
Harold could almost have embraced 
the tall old thing, as it stood there, for 
its loyalty to him. And now, since 
several days had gone by, he began 
to long to see once more the wonder- 
139 


THE MAGIC KEY 


working charms. Therefore that even- 
ing he quickly, on the first opportunity, 
opened the sixth drawer. 

DRAWER NO. VI 
An Airy Flight 

There he saw upon a little cushion 
a box, which on opening held a little 
round ball like clear candy. “Some more 
‘Eat me,’” said Harold. “Oh, I won- 
der what it will do ! ” for he was getting 
a bit cautious about hastily eating or 
drinking anything; but on lifting it 
out, it proved to be a round glass ball 
with a small fine chain of silver run- 
ning through it. It was exactly like 
a little round locket, and Harold in- 
stinctively threw the chain over his 
head. A most surprising sensation 
followed ! Harold immediately left 
the floor and flew straight up to the 
ceiling, giving his poor head quite a 
bump as he arrived there; and there 
140 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


he stayed. At first he was afraid of 
falling, and kept moving his feet to 
try to step on something and clutch- 
ing at the air with his hands. But 
presently, as he found that he did not 
fall, nor anything disagreeable hap- 
pen, he stood in the air and consid- 
ered the situation, which you know 
was certainly a most remarkable one 
for any boy to find himself in. He 
tried walking, and found to his joy 
that it was perfectly possible; so he 
walked along in the air over the room, 
touching his hands to the ceiling to 
keep from bumping his head as he 
went. 

By and by he began to wonder if 
he could ever get down to the floor 
again. He soon found that the only 
way to do this was by catching hold 
of something, and he grasped the win- 
dow cornice, then the curtain, and de- 
scended in this way. He found, how- 
ever, that while he kept hold of the 
curtain it was easy enough to stay 
141 


THE MAGIC KEY 


down, for there was no dragging in 
either direction. Only if he let go, up 
he went. 

This was rather a funny sensation, so 
he made several ascensions and came 
down by the curtains each time. 
“ But,” he thought, “ I can’t very well 
hold on to these curtains forever, and 
I ’ll want to go out of my room in the 
morning, and how can I go to bed ? ” 
And when he began to get' very sleepy, 
he had to tie the cords of the curtains 
together to form a rope. This he 
found just reached the bedpost, and he 
tied it to the other end, making a sort 
of bridge for himself to hold on by 
while he floated over to the bed. His 
feet would not keep on the floor if he 
let go his hold for an instant. You 
wonder why he didn’t take it off? 
Well, you see Harold was a very de- 
termined sort of boy and wished to 
carry everything out to its end, and he 
had had so much trouble in keeping 
his magic by letting it go out of his 
142 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


own hands for a moment, that he was 
determined to keep hold of this new 
power and try it to its fullest extent. 
And so I think would I have done in 
his place, and you, too. 

Well, he had to plan very hard to 
get a way to keep in bed. He knew 
he could not hold to the post all night, 
or in his sleep he might let go, and he 
didn’t at all fancy a bump against the 
ceiling again in the middle of the 
night. 

He had the funniest time undress- 
ing, having to hold to the bed with 
one hand all the time. When he got 
to his nightgown, he had to hold on 
with his feet while he put it on, and 
being rather tired with all this, without 
thinking he plumped himself down 
into bed, only holding on to a pillow. 
Immediately he went up, up, — lying 
down as he was, and only by holding 
the pillow over himself did he escape 
the bump — this time of his whole 
body ! So he had to climb down by 
M3 


THE MAGIC KEY 


the window-curtains again, and this 
time he hauled the curtain cord after 
him into the bed. Then he tied him- 
self into bed, passing the cord under 
his arms to the post, and only in this 
way he managed to stay there and rest. 
It was n’t very comfortable, I assure 
you, to be tied in to sleep ; but sleep 
he did at last, and was waked in the 
morning by the curious sensation of 
waving in the air. He was dreaming 
that he was swimming, and woke to 
find himself half tied in the bed and 
half up in the air, one of his arms 
having got loose in the night. He got 
up and with great difficulty dressed. 

When Mrs. Bangs came in to brush 
his hair and tie his scarf, she found a 
very quiet boy standing by the dressing 
table, holding on to the edge of it in 
a most singular way. She remarked 
nothing unusual in his behavior, how- 
ever, though it did seem strange that 
he stayed so closely holding to it all 
the time. Even his request for the 
144 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


longest ball of stout cord she had did 
not seem strange, and she came to the 
door with it, expecting him to run up 
and take it from her. 

Imagine her surprise when he said, 
“ Oh, please, Mrs. Bangs dear, do bring 
it here to me. I can’t — I — that is, I 
can’t go to take it from you.” 

“ Why, Master Harold, whatever is 
the matter? Do you feel dizzy-like or 
faint, that you can’t move ? I’m in a 
hurry, dear — come get it like a good 
boy.” 

What was poor Harold to do? At 
last he said, “ Oh, throw it here. Aim 
and I’ll catch.” And Mrs. Bangs, 
exasperated at his seeming laziness, 
threw it ; but alas, she did n’t aim, and 
walked away, not seeing the strange 
and desperate efforts of poor Harold to 
catch the ball of cord, which landed 
across the room from him. 

He secured it at last by dint of 
much clinging to the furniture, all the 
time with the ridiculous feeling one 
i45 


10 


THE MAGIC KEY 


has in the water that one’s heels will 
fly up above one’s head at every step. 
He made the cord fast about his waist, 
and left a coil of it to throw out as a 
lasso when he wanted to catch it over 
a post or chair as anchor. Then he 
started for downstairs. This was the 
queerest sensation of all ! Throwing 
his lasso down so as to catch it to the 
newel post of the steps in the hall 
below, he floated down through the 
air with this as a rail, and the feeling 
was dreamlike in the extreme. See- 
ing James coming at the far end 
of the hall, he drew his noose off 
the post and sailed high overhead 
out of sight. He kept near the ceil- 
ing, and spent some time in hiding 
up there, for no one ever looked up 
at him, and the ceiling being very 
high he was very well hidden, and it 
was a little like being invisible in 
that way, for twice he darted into 
a room, keeping overhead, and saw 
from a dark corner of the ceiling 
146 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 



When he went to breakfast, 
Mrs. Bangs fortunately did not come 
in till he was seated and well tied, 
for he knew it would never do to let 
her see him ascending in the air in 
that mad style. And she wondered 
why he was so patient about leaving 
the table, — waiting quietly till she 
washed up her china and silver, listen- 
ing' to a storv which he coaxed her * 



i47 


THE MAGIC KEY 


alarmed indeed to see the quiet boy 
suddenly rise into the air, and appar- 
ently walking on that same substance, 
career wildly along under the ceiling, 
and float out of the room and up the 
stairs like some strange bird. 

Well, after trying it in different ways 
about the house, Harold began to won- 
der whether the chain could hold its 
power out of doors, and whether he 
would go up like a balloon if he went 
out. So at last he opened the front 
door and ventured forth. He kept a 
tight hold on the railing of the steps 
and walked cautiously down to the 
sidewalk. The floating sensation was 
even more apparent than in the house, 
but by planting his feet very firmly 
down with each step he took, and by 
keeping his grasp on the railing which 
ran in front of all the houses in the 
block, he managed to go as far as the 
corner without attracting attention to 
the fact that his feet were an inch at 
least above the ground as he walked. 

148 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


Here he met with a difficulty, for the 
railing ceased, and the question of how 
to get across to the next block, or over 
to the Square in the middle of the 
streets, was a problem indeed. 

He wanted to go over and sit in 
that Square, as it was a very nice day, 
and he often sat there. But how could 
he do it, with nothing to hold on by? 
You have seen before that he was a 
determined boy, and he had now set 
his mind on going and he felt that he 
must reach that Square. There seemed 
no way but to make a dash for it and 
“ trust to luck.” 

So letting go his hold on the rail, 
he tried to run across the street. Tried, 
but, alas ! at the very first step he felt 
his feet lifting, and by the time he had 
reached the middle of the street he 
was several feet above the ground. 
He hurried on through the air, run- 
ning as hard as he could, for he felt 
himself rising higher all the time, and 
indeed by the time he had reached the 
149 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Square it was all he could do to grab 
at one of the top branches of a tree 
and manage to stop himself by hang- 
ing on. Luckily for Harold, the Square 
was at that moment almost unoccupied, 
except by a little girl who was so ab- 
sorbed in her play beneath Harold’s 
tree that she had not noticed his aerial 
ascent. He seated himself as near the 
trunk of the tree as possible, and clung 
there. 

He looked down and recognized the 
little pink-frocked girl as one who lived 
next door to his uncle’s house, and she 
had sometimes smiled across from a 
back window in a friendly way. So 
he thought he would try what help 
she could give him. He called down 
“ Hulloo,” and was rewarded by having 
her look up and reply “ Hullo.” 

“ I did n’t know you were up there, 
boy. When did you climb up? ” 

Harold answered, “Oh, just five 
minutes ago,” to which she replied 
with a very shocked — 

150 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


“ Oh, you could n’t. I did n’t see 
you go up.” 

“Well, you missed it,” said Harold. 
“It was a sight.” 

“ Come down and play,” she coaxed. 

“Would if I could, but I can’t,” 
replied Harold. “ I ’m afraid I ’d fall 
up again!' 

Having mystified her sufficiently, he 
began to slowly climb down, and soon 
was sitting on the bench which was 
against the tree, clinging tightly to the 
sides as he sat. He proceeded to ex- 
plain his position to the astonished 
little girl, and had to exhibit his float- 
ing powers to her, in order to con- 
vince her that what he said was true, 
though so marvellous it was hard to 
believe. 

She begged to be allowed to try the 
power of the chain around her own 
little neck, but Harold refused to let 
another share the magic power, remem- 
bering his experiences before. She 
thought this very hard, but at last her 

151 


THE MAGIC KEY 


interest in helping him out of his 
novel position overcame her annoyance 
at his refusal, and she promised to aid 
him in any way she could. He gra- 
ciously said that if she ’d help him to 
get home all right, he’d allow her to 
wear the chain for just ten minutes in 
the house. This promise satisfied her, 
and she proposed her plan of rescue, 
which, though anything but the way 
Harold would have liked, seemed the 
only way. It was for him to take hold 
of her hand and let her lead him home. 
They started, but, alas ! it seemed as if 
there was ill luck in that spring wind, 
which sprang up with a great gust, and 
Harold went heels over head in spite 
of his little girl anchor, and would 
have blown quite away again but that 
he gripped her by both arms. So they 
saw that plan would not do. 

The little girl then thought of a 
way which pleased her very much, but 
was most disgusting to Harold’s boy 
dignity, as you will see. 

152 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


This plan was nothing more or less 
than to take a firm hold of the girl’s 
hand, and with the other push her 



doll’s carriage — a rather large affair 
with a huge and heavy doll sitting in 
it — with his other hand. Thus he 
could balance himself and keep his 
feet at the same time, and he was 
forced to submit, though I am sorry to 
i53 



THE MAGIC KEY 


say it was not with a very good grace 
he did so. But when even with this 
weight and hold, he found his feet 
lifting giddily from the ground at 
every step, he realized that he must 
accept whatever help she offered. Poor 
Harold was most uncomfortable. Im- 
agine his feelings. To walk hand in 
hand with a girl was bad enough at 
his age, but to actually be pushing a 
doll-baby carriage was humiliating in 
the extreme. It was horrible. But 
there was no other way, for it would 
have been much worse to attract a 
crowd by floating home, even if he 
had been sure of getting there, which 
he was not. For the wind had in- 
creased, and threatened even with his 
present anchorage to blow him away 
again any moment. So he grimly sub- 
mitted to the position, and walked 
slowly and carefully behind that silly, 
though so useful carriage, and held 
tightly to the girl’s hand, to her huge 
delight. 


1 54 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


“Never mind,” she whispered, as 
they went along, Harold’s feet floating 
several inches above the pavement 
every once in a while. “They’ll think 
you 're learning roller skates, an’ I ’m 
your sister helping you.” 

And sure enough, they did ! That 
is, some girls who came by did. For 
they giggled and whispered and, point- 
ing to poor, red-faced Harold, said, 
“ Oh ho ; had to get yer sister to teach 
ye, — could n’t skate.” 

“ I might get mad now,” said the 
girl. “ But I ’m not going to ; so you 
must n’t mind, either.” 

Harold did “ mind,” however, for 
presently some boys came by, and 
seeing the strange sight, had many 
jeers to fling out at the “boy mind- 
in’ a doll baby,” “an’ hangin’ on to 
the girls,” “ oh, ough ! ” But the 
climax was reached when Rob came 
around the corner just as they were 
crossing the street, before they’d got 
where Harold could catch hold of the 
i55 


THE MAGIC KEY 


railing. He stared, stood still, and 
whistled long and loud, calling out, 
“Well, of all things, Harold Elmore, 
have you taken to playing with 
dolls ? ” 

Harold, at his patience’ end, turned 
a beseeching face to Rob, and ex- 
claimed : 

“ Oh, for goodness’ sake, hush, and 
let me get home. It ’s that old magic 
again.” 

At this, Rob said, “ Oh, Harold, an’ 
you did n’t tell me! Well, all right! 
You can get home the best way you 
may. I ’ll not help you ; you ’re so 
mean with your old secrets.” And 
with that Harold’s only hope of res- 
cue from the girl’s and doll’s help put 
his hands in his pockets and strolled 
away. 

He was even mean enough to stop 
and turn around with a stare, and with 
a shout of “ Oh, Elmore, if you could 
see yourself shovin’ a doll carriage ! ” 
doubled up with laughter most exas- 
x 56 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


perating to Harold. With a gasp he 
gave the carriage a mighty shove, and 
shook off the poor little girl’s helping 
hand, with a plunge forward he made a 
clutch at the railing of the first house 
in the block, missed it, and up he went 
into the air once more ! He did not 
stop, however, but hurling himself as 
near the houses as he could, guided 
his flight along, by catching the bal- 
cony rails as he went, thus keeping 
down to the height of 
the second stories. 

In this wild and fantas- 
tic way he at last reached 
his uncle’s house, and 
hurled himself into the 
first balcony he could 
catch. There he clung, 
panting, and beheld below 
him a crowd of people all 
shouting and watching 
him in wild amazement. 

“Now I ’ve done it,” he thought. 
“ Why did I let go the girl’s hand ? ” 
i57 



THE MAGIC KEY 


He crouched back against the win- 
dow-sash, clinging with all his might, 
and was much relieved to see James 
come out on the steps, look up at 
him, and then hurry back, slamming 
the door on the crowd. He listened 
eagerly at the window behind him, 
and at last heard some one enter the 
room. He turned around, expecting 
to see James lifting the window, but 
instead, to his great dismay, there was 
his uncle, grave, disturbed, and solemn! 
Opening the window, he called to the 
boy : “ Harold, what does this mean ? 
Why are you crouching there attract- 
ing a crowd in front of my house ? 
Are you crazy, boy?” 

Poor Harold hung his head. He 
was so loath to say the word Magic to 
his sorely tried uncle again, and yet it 
was the only explanation. He said 
bravely at last, — 

“ Oh, Uncle Harold, really if I let go 
I shall go right up in the air. I can- 
not explain ; only do tell James to help 
me in.” 158 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


When " that solemn person 

had lifted h i n t o the room, he 
sailed right / up to the 

ceiling be-^ ) /^fore their 

astonished^y\^^^PL gaze. He 

then climbea^^^K^^^aown the cur- 
tain, and by ^ clutching hard 
to the chair, mairfem aged to keep 
down. There seatea^^x A jie tried to 
explain his conduct©^ to the se- 

rious and annoyed paingj^ before him. 
When at last his uncle understood 
that the charm lay within the sin- 
gular chain about the boy’s neck, he 
at once seized it, and in spite of 
Harold's protestations, broke it in two, 
and flung it into the fireplace, where 



THE MAGIC KEY 


a brisk fire was burning brightly, 
which soon melted it away. Nothing 
happened, though they all watched it 
going in anxious silence; James cau- 
tiously backing off to the farthest wall, 
evidently fearing an explosion. None 
came, however. It might have been 
any ordinary metal chain there in the 
fire, but to poor Harold it was much 
more. 

His uncle, after sending James out 
to bid the crowd disperse, then and 
there read Harold a severe lecture on 
his conduct of late, and dwelt on the 
uselessness and folly of trying to mix 
Indian magic in every-day life. 

It was all very true and very sad, 
and poor Harold was rather miserable 
for a while. His uncle ended by ris- 
ing and saying: “There must be no 
more of it, my boy, no more of it. 
Give me the key of that fatal chest.” 

Harold pleaded and coaxed, prom- 
ised all sorts of things, “ never to let it 
disturb the household,” and all he 
160 


ROB’S PUNISHMENT 


could think of, but his uncle was firm. 
With a heavy heart Harold led the 
way into the bedroom where stood 
that fascinating chest, and reluctant- 
ly handed his uncle the small box 
which contained the key to his strange 
treasures. 


II 


161 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Chapter Seven 

Understanding 

H AROLD’S uncle had pos- 
sessed the little key for just 
two days and nights when, 
on the third night, Harold, 
who was lying awake in his little white 
bed, was surprised at seeing the door 
slowly open and his uncle come in. 
He held a shaded candle in his hand, 
and, after first glancing at Harold’s bed 
(at which Harold quickly shut his eyes 
tight), and supposing him asleep, he 
stepped very softly but quickly over to 
the magic chest. 

“ Oh,” thought Harold, mournfully, 
“ he ’s going to use my magic key and 
open the rest of the drawers.” 

Not so fast, Master Harold. When 
has this magic of yours ever played 
you false, or yielded its treasures to 
another than the rightful owner of the 
small key? 162 


UNDERSTANDING 


His uncle looked and felt over the 
whole chest, — carved heads, knots, 
leaves, all, — but not one key-hole or a 
semblance to one could he find. It was 
a very curious thing. There certainly 
was a key, but where was a hole to 
fit it to ? Harold expected at any mo- 
ment to see the little green eyes of the 
dragon light up as they had done for 
him, but no such thing occurred ; and 
after his uncle had searched and felt 
carefully all over its unyielding sur- 
face, he turned away with contempt, 
muttering, “ What foolishness it all is ! 
Of course the boy dreams it all — 
though it ’s strange the way he acted 
in the air that day. Who has taught 
him these tricks ? Anyway, there is 
nothing to be had from this old piece 
of furniture, and the idea is absurd.” 
And with that he turned and went 
slowly out of the room, taking care not 
to waken Harold. 

But scarcely had he closed the door 
when the seemingly sleeping boy on 
163 


THE MAGIC KEY 


the bed bounded across the room, and, 
pouncing upon a small shining some- 
thing which had been dropped there, 
went jumping and dancing about in 
silent joy, and getting back into bed, 
after depositing the something care- 
fully under his pillow, went truly and 
soundly to sleep, happy in having found 
his lost treasure, the little magic key, 
at last. It had come back to its owner, 
and there were four more delightful 
mysteries to be had for the opening 
with that very little key. 

And he wasted no time, but the very 
first chance he could be alone, which 
was the next night, he hastily opened 
the seventh drawer, and saw a small 
round box, with this plain inscription 
written in verse on the top, very like 
a pill-box with a prescription written 
on it: — 

“ Place in thine ear , 

And thou shalt hear 

Voices to thee 

Once strange , now clear” 

164 


UNDERSTANDING 


And lying in the box was a curious 
small thing like a West India shell, 
which just fitted in the large outer 
part of his ear. There was no danger 
of its going in too far, for it was too 
large for that. There was the most 
peculiar purring sound in his ear. 
Looking around the room, he saw old 
gray pussy rousing from sleep on a 
chair. He went over to her, saying, 
“ Pussy, how loudly you purr ! I can 
hear you in my shell.” 

What was his amazement to hear 
her reply in round, purring accents, 
“ Well, of course you can hear me with 
that shell in your ear; you can hear 
all animals talk by its help!” 

Startled, he took the shell out, and 
only heard “ Mew-mi-aw,” as Pussy 
arched her back against the door, ask- 
ing to be let out. Putting the shell 
back in his ear, he heard her say dis- 
tinctly, “ Do open this door. Oh, 
let me out. Can’t you tell what I 
want? ” 

165 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“Well,” he replied, “that doesn’t 
need words. I always know what you 
mean when you rub your back against 
a door, old puss.” 

“ Oh, do you ? ” replied Puss at once. 
“Well, why do you wait so long some- 
times, pretending you don’t understand 
me ? ” And with that she marched off 
into the darkness outdoors, leaving 
Harold astonished to think he had 
actually been conversing with a cat, 
like a person. 

Well, this was a funny new power. 
He had a half-holiday next day, and 
as he went to bed, after putting the 
shell carefully away in a jar on the 
mantelpiece, he resolved to ask his 
uncle to let him spend that holiday at 
the Zoo. “ The very thing I ’ve always 
wanted to do was to hear animals talk, 
and there will be the very place,” he 
thought, as he crept into bed. 

It proved to be a rainy day, so 
that he had hard work to persuade 
Mrs. Bangs to let him go. But he 
166 


UNDERSTANDING 


coaxed hard, for this he knew would 
be the very best sort of a day to be 
alone and listen unmolested to the 
strange talk he hoped to hear. 

He chose an omnibus to ride out to 
the Zoo, and sat on the front seat on 
top with the driver, so that he might 
try the power of his new understand- 
ing, or hearing, listening to the horses. 
Those drawing this special ’bus hap- 
pened to be gaunt, bony specimens 
of a peculiarly silent sort, for scarcely 
a word did they utter all the way. 
Once, when they were stopped a mo- 
ment or so by a crush of other vehicles, 
the tall gray mare shook her head and 
wheezed out, “ Oh, I wish they ’d hurry 
up an’ get a-movin’. It ’s so long since 
I ’ve had a bite.” To which her com- 
panion, a rusty roan, replied crossly: 
“ Guess you needn’t complain. Whip 
does n’t reach you half as often as me, 
an’ my nose-bag has a hole in it, an’ 
most of the oats drop out when I do 
get it.” 


167 


THE MAGIC KEY 


A small butchers pony was standing 
quietly munching a full bag of feed 
just by, and he turned his eye upon 
them and remarked, “ Go it, ole Bones; 
ye ’ll get there some day ’fore Christ- 
mas,” in a very jeering and teasing 
voice. 

“ Bones,” the gray mare, put back 
her ears, and gave a kick at her insult- 
ing little enemy; and thereupon the 
driver, bringing his whip down on her 
back, reminded her in very forcible 
language that she was to “git on.” 
So she “ got on ” at her best pace, 
and there was no more chance for 
conversation. 

Harold now saw why horses are such 
very silent creatures. They are seldom 
standing still when men are behind 
them, and so have no time for play or 
conversation. 

They were the only animals he was 
near enough to listen to on the way to 
the Zoo, and so as soon as they arrived 
there he made his way eagerly to the 
1 68 


UNDERSTANDING 


lion houses and the rest. When he 
found himself almost alone in front of 
the great cages, he put the wondrous 
little shell again in his ear. At once 
a low, roaring murmur of voices, sad 
and plaintive voices, filled the air. 
Sharp complaints from jackal and 
hyenas seemed loudest. The shrill 
clamor of the monkeys, even far away 
as they were in their distant cages, 
sounded over all like screaming voices 
in the distance, while hoarse and low 
and deep under all and through all was 
the thunder from the mighty chest of 
his majesty the lion of Africa. At first 
he could not at all distinguish what 
each voice. was saying. It was just 
like listening to the sound of a mob 
of people in the streets. But as their 
sudden excitement ended, many of the 
voices died away, as their restless 
owners lay down for the fortieth time 
that afternoon to sleep. 

Harold at last took courage, and ap- 
proached nearer to the cage of the lion, 
169 


THE MAGIC KEY 


determined to hear what the monarch 
of the forest had to say for himself. 
There lay his majesty blinking his 
slanting green eyes like a great yellow 
cat. Harold stood looking at him for 
some time, but the great beast was 
perfectly quiet, lying stretched out with 
his head uplifted, gazing away oyer 
every ones head, off and away into the 
distance, with that far-seeing look one 
sees in a caged lion’s eyes ; away off 
beyond this crowd and beyond the city 
those green slant eyes seemed to see, 
yes, even off to the far, far-away sands 
of the deserts in the land of his birth, 
where he had roved up and down in 
free majesty before this contemptible 
life came with its limit of bars to one 
who had known no limits once. All 
this seemed expressed in the grand 
pose of the head and the slow con- 
tempt of the glance the mighty beast 
cast now and then over the crowd of 
inferior human beings beneath and 
about his cage. 

170 





































. 






























































UNDERSTANDING 


At last he opened his great mouth 
and yawned, and Harold, listening 
breathlessly for his utterance, heard 
his tired voice exclaim, — 

“ Oh, I say, how much longer before 
that man comes back with those bones 
he promised me yesterday ? What an 
age it is since breakfast ! ” 

And getting up, he strode up and 
down, shaking his massive head, and 
going over to his great mate, the 
lioness, he remarked in a whining 
voice, “ Ye might give me a bite o’ 
that you Ve got under your paw, you 
greedy, you Ve got no one to save it 
for ; gi’ me a bit, will ye ? ” 

To which her majesty replied by a 
growl and a snarl : “ Naw, ye don’t. 
I ain’t savin’ it fer you, anyway; why 
don’t you save one fer yourself? 
You ’re so greedy ye ate yours all up 
and then expect mine. G’ way ! ” and 
she turned her back on him, while he 
growled and turned away. 

“ I wish I could take a trot on the 
171 


THE MAGIC KEY 


sand, I do,” he remarked. At which 
her ladyship snorted, and replied : 

“ Sand, indeed ! not you. Why, 
don’t you remember how hot it used 
to be, an’ how you hated it ? an’ how 
we used to starve before anything in 
the way of food came along, an’ how 
awful thirsty we used to be ? It ’s cool 
and shady here, lots to eat an’ drink, 
an’ every one admires us all the time. 
I don’t want to trot, I can tell you, nor 
neither do you. You ’d come back 
like the tiger that got loose at the cir- 
cus the other day, you know you 
would. An’ then the winter — ugh ! 
how cold it used to be. No, thank 
you; I’d like the fun of gettin’ out, 
but I ’d want to come back, I would, 
an’ so would you ; you know you 
would.” 

His majesty snorted in reply and 
continued to walk up and down, but 
he did not deny the truth of her re- 
marks. And when at last the keeper 
appeared with the huge chunks of 
1 72 


UNDERSTANDING 


meat for the brutes, they became fran- 
tic with joy, and roaring and rushing 
up and down gave way to such glut- 
tonous expressions, and were so quar- 
relsome and greedy over the meat 
when they got it, that Harold turned 
away in disappointed disgust from 
these monarchs of the forest, whom he 
had always imagined as fairly “ eating 
their hearts out,” as the saying is, 
over their misery in prison ! Indeed, 
he found it greatly the same in all the 
other cages. 

Approaching the tigers next, he 
heard much the same conversation be- 
tween his striped royal highness and 
his wife. Here there were young ones 
who in squeaking voices kept asking 
Pa Tiger when they would be fed and 
have the bones to play with. They 
kept up a lively squabble over an 
old bone one of the young ones un- 
earthed from a hole, and danced and 
whirled about exactly like big kittens. 
One of them came to the bars and 
i73 


THE MAGIC KEY 


looked out at Harold with round and 
innocent eyes, and remarked, — 

“ Oh, say, boys, see this nice fat Boy 
Thing ! Would n’t you like to scratch 
his face ? ” 

And the others all gathered close, 
followed by the evil-eyed head of their 
father, who with a smack of his cruel 
lips remarked, — 

“ It would make a nice fat meal ; 
I ’d like to get out for just one minute. 
What are ye starin’ in here for, you 
fat, white-faced man’s whelp ? Oh, 
if I could get at ye ! ” 

And he gave such a snarling grin at 
Harold that the boy, disgusted and 
shivering, moved away. Such conver- 
sation he had certainly never imagined 
he would hear. He had thought to 
hear longing talk of their old homes, 
and the lives of freedom, and perhaps 
stories of their lost prowess as hunters. 
But these greedy gluttons were not 
worth listening to. 

The great elephant swung his trunk 
04 


UNDERSTANDING 


about over the crowd, eating every- 
thing thrust into it, swaying back and 
forth, and the only remark he heard it 



make was “ Oh, these pesky flies ! ” 
while it seemed to Harold impossible 
that flies could affect that thick skin 
at all. 

At the monkeys’ cage Harold heard 
a perfect hubbub of bad language, 
quarrelling, and squabbling, — such a 
confusion of voices, all talking at once, 
that it was hard to distinguish any 
separate ones. At last he found that 
they were one and all criticising the 
i75 


THE MAGIC KEY 


crowd outside their cage and laughing 
at what the people did, just as those 
same people were doing to them. 

“ Look at them now,” shouted one 
agile monkey, — “ what faces, what 
funny skins, and no tails to climb with 
and hold on by. Oh my, I ’m glad I ’m 
not a man monkey;” and off he skipped, 
swinging round his bar by his long 
tail in an ecstasy of joy in its pos- 
session. “ See that funny one with his 
hand to his ear,” shouted another. 
“ Got a flea, I suppose ? Say, sonny, 
give it to me;” and he skipped down 
close to Harold, thrusting out his 
skinny arm. 

Then they made remarks on every- 
thing the crowd gave them to eat, 
scolded hard a boy who gave them 
peanuts because they were cooked. 
“ Why can ’t you ever give a fellow a 
decent raw bite?” 

Such a quarrelling, snapping, snarl- 
ing, swearing crew it was that Harold 
was glad to leave them, remarking to 
176 


UNDERSTANDING 


himself as he did so, '‘Well, I don’t 
believe I ’ll like being called a monkey 
ever again.” 

All the cages he visited were much 
the same disappointments to him. 
The wolf, the hyena, the jackal, the 
panther, each and every 
one were talking and 
grumbling over the food 
being so long in coming, 
or quarrelling with each 
other over bones of left- 
over dinners. Much dis- 
couraged, he visited the 
bears’ den. Here a great 
cross bear climbed up 
and down and bullied an- 
other smaller one, swear- 
ing roundly at the crowd 
in hoarse growls all the 




12 


177 


THE MAGIC KEY 


time, sometimes slapping his strong 
fat paws on the top of the pole, and 
remarking, “Oh, if I could only get at 
some of you, I ’d soon have those bags 
of peanuts and buns you are so stingy 
with.” Never seeming anxious to kill 
or even hurt any one, only desirous of 
obtaining food, food all the time. The 
smaller bear kept up an injured growl 
incessantly. “ Mean old thing, might 
let us have one bite ; ” and really he 
got as much as the other, for the buns 
just as often fell down to him, as the 
bear at the top of the pole missed 
them. 

It was only at the cage of the new 
white polar bear that Harold heard 
anything like what he had expected. 
Here stood the great old fellow, with 
his head swaying back and forth, a 
perfect picture of uncomforted misery, 
and his constant refrain seemed to 
be “ Oh for the free blue cold, the ice, 
the sea, the huge bergs, the walrus! 
Oh, this terrible heat!” He stood, on 
178 


UNDERSTANDING 



THE MAGIC KEY 


ones to do. Harold watched him as he 
stood there, as the slow tears dropped 
from his sad eyes, and his tongue hung 
in torture from his mouth, and was 
greatly moved by his sorrowful majesty. 
When the keeper came bringing a glad 
charm to all the other cages, the great 
homesick beast crawled slowly up, and 
turned over the unfresh fish with an 
unsatisfied loathing, and slowly slunk 
back to his cave, moaning, “ I ’ll die, 
I ’ll crawl away and die.” 

The keeper, addressing Harold, 
said, “That poor old feller is so home- 
sick and lonely I guess he ’ll die. 
Can’t do nothing with ’im ; won’t eat, 
nor nothin’.” 

Harold replied, “Yes, he says he’ll 
die.” 

“ Oh, he does, does he ? ” said the 
keeper, eying Harold queerly. “Ye 
understand bear language, do ye? 
Well, I guess I do pretty much too ; 
he ’ll get over it, they all do ; he ’s new 
yet.” 

180 


UNDERSTANDING 


Harold felt that he could do the 
poor old bear no good, so he turned 
away, sad to think of his uncomforted 
state but really almost glad that, after 
all, there was one beast in that whole 
menagerie who was noble enough to 
remember and not to think only of 
food. He removed the shell from his 
ear while he stood in front of the 
ostrich enclosure, for he could not 
understand bird language in the least 
with its help. 

While he stood look- 
ing in, a tall ostrich 
stretched his head over 
the top of the wires, 
and snatched the pre- 
cious shell as a tempt- 
ing morsel from his 
hand, and Harold saw his treasure 
quickly swallowed down the long neck. 
He felt sorry to lose it, but some way 
he was so disgusted with having heard 
so much animal greed and gluttony, 
that he did not regret it as much as he 
181 



THE MAGIC KEY 


would have done at the beginning of 
his visit to the menagerie. Going 
back through the lion houses, and all 
the rest, he found them asleep and sat- 
isfied, with bones beside them ; and his 
feelings all the way home were of 
thankfulness that he did not have to 
hear always such conversation from 
the animals about him as he had lis- 
tened to that morning. Still, it was a 
great experience, and he proceeded to 
write it down in his record book. 


182 


A WONDERFUL ART 


Chapter Eight 

A IVonderful Art 

N O one had known of his ex- 
perience of hearing the ani- 
mals, as Harold did not 
think it wise, since every 
one was so against his magic powers, 
to tell any happening that he could 
keep to himself. So all went quietly 
for a few days, and the watching 
household had no cause for complaint 
against him. 

But this state of things did not last 
very long, for the very next happening 
concerned the household very much. 
But I must not tell ahead. Well, so 
then Harold went the next thing, and 
climbing up on the footstool, without 
any difficulty at all, he opened the 

DRAWER NO. VIII 
and there lay an artist’s paint-brush, 
183 


THE MAGIC KEY 


rather large and pointed (a water-color 
brush), and a bottle of pasty-looking 
stuff, and a pencil. 

“ Am I to be an artist ? ” he said. 
“ How jolly ! ” 

There was quite a long slip of direc- 
tions lying by the bottle, and he read 
eagerly their advice. 

“ If you 'd have a picture live 
fust, one brush of mixture give. 

Draw a line about it true , 

Down the picture steps to you'.' 

“Good, good, good!” cried Harold, 
as its meaning dawned upon him. 
“ Oh, this is best of all ! I ’ll have the 
Boy in the picture by the window. 
•I ’ve often and often wished him to be 
alive and talk to me. Hurrah ! now I 
can do it, and he can play with me.” 

It seemed at first rather a smaller 
thing than the other magic had been, 
but it pleased Harold very much, for 
he saw a way of getting a companion 
for his lonely self. 

184 


A WONDERFUL ART 


The picture with the Boy of which 
he spoke, was a large oil painting by 
a celebrated artist, very old and very 
valuable, as Harold had often heard 
people say who saw it. Indeed, every 
visitor to his uncle’s house was shown 
this picture as a rare and precious 
thing. Harold was very fond of it, for 
the Boy painted in it was such a life- 
like boy and had such a nice face. 
Harold had even stolen in alone some- 
times to the great silent drawing-room 
where the picture hung, and found 
himself talking to the picture Boy as 
to a live friend. So it was to this pic- 
ture he hastened at once with the pot 
of precious liquid in his hand. Climb- 
ing on a chair, he reached up and 
spread over the whole face and figure 
a wash of the magic stuff in the bottle, 
careful not to touch anything outside 
of the figure. 

As he finished doing the feet, he 
glanced up at the face again, and there 
it was smiling out at him, and its eyes 
185 


THE MAGIC KEY 


were winking and its mouth moving, — 
yes, and it was breathing. 

“ So far, so good,” he heard a whis- 
pering voice say. “ Now line me all 
around and let me out.” 

And this Harold proceeded to do, 
very carefully, feeling the figure of the 
boy grow warm and 
lifelike all the time un- 
der his hand. When 
the pencil had outlined 
the last line of a boot 
on his foot, the feet 
began to move, they 
stretched out, yes, they * 
came out of the canvas, 
and the Boy stepped 
down out of his picture 
upon the chair Harold had been on. 

It was an amazing sight, I can tell 
you. The Boy stretched his arms, and 
yawned, and sat down on the chair, 
remarking, — 

“ Oh, this is delightful! You dear, 
good boy ! I am so glad to be out for 
once.” 1 86 




A WONDERFUL ART 


In the picture left in the frame there 
was a blank space on the canvas 
where the Boy had stood. It looked 
very bare and strange, and certainly 
spoiled the picture as a painting. 
Harold drew the blinds closer, and 
hoped no one entering the dark room 
would notice, and in fact hardly any 
one ever came here except the cham- 
bermaids once in a while to sweep and 
dust. So he hoped for the best, and 
taking the Boy’s hand, cautioning him 
to be very still, he led him up to his 
own room and locked the door. 

Once there the Boy, who seemed a 
very stately sort of person (for a pic- 
ture), walked all about the room, ex- 
claiming over everything, and exam- 
ining each article, asking all sorts of 
questions, and sitting in every chair. 
He was dressed very oddly, to Harold’s 
ideas. For he was a picture of a Boy 
of Charles II.’s reign and wore the pic- 
turesque velvet short trousers and 
long coat, belted with a blue sash, and 
187 


THE MAGIC KEY 


with lace at his neck and about his 
knees. He had long silk stockings 
and silver buckled shoes of old-fash- 
ioned make. 

“You look like a party boy,” Harold 
remarked ; and then he had to explain 
to him what he meant, for though the 
Boy was only up to his shoulder, he 
was a very suspicious and touchy boy 
indeed, and ready to draw the small 
sword hanging by his side, after the 
approved manner of the boys and men 
in the day when he was painted. For 
of course you have guessed by now that 
as he was painted by a famous artist 
long, long ago, and as he had stepped 
out of a very remarkable painting, he 
therefore considered himself a very val- 
uable and important person indeed. 
And of course, as he was a portrait of 
a real boy painted in that long ago of 
King Charles II., he belonged to those 
times and seemed to have stepped 
from that date into now. His man- 
ners were like his dress, and he 
1 88 


A WONDERFUL ART 


spoke in the quaint language of long 
ago. 

He called Harold “ Good Boy ” in a 
most patronizing tone, and though he 
only reached to Harold’s shoulder, 
seemed to think himself the taller, and 
strutted about the room examining 
things in a manner like the princes in 
the fairy tales. He knew nothing what- 
ever of a boy’s sports or toys of this 
modern life, and was full of questions 
and curiosity about the articles of fur- 
niture new to his world, in the room. 
He insisted upon Harold’s taking him 
on a tour of inspection through the 
house, to which Harold at last con- 
sented, hoping that if the servants 
noticed him they would think him a 
boy friend dressed in masquerading 
clothes for a play. He walked about 
everywhere in a dignified way, and 
seeing James in the distance as they 
entered the dining-room, he called out 
in a most authoritative tone, — 

“Ha, menial, come hither and do 
my behest.” 189 


THE MAGIC KEY 


James jumped and stared, and his 
Majesty the Picture Boy repeated his 
order in clear tones. James then 
called out without “coming hither,” — 

“ Oh, now, what do ye want, sir, wid 
yer play-actin’ words?” 

At that the Boy, drawing himself up 
at full height, shouted his order a third 
time, adding, “ I ’ll have thee thrashed, 
thou clout ! Obey my command.” 

Harold was greatly alarmed and tried 
to stop further disturbance, but to his 
relief James seemed to think it all a 
joke that this boy friend of his was 
playing on him, and smiling and tit- 
tering audibly, came near saying in 
mock humility, — 

“Oh, yes, sir; please, sir, what do 
you wish?” 

The Picture Boy drew his sword 
and pointed to a pitcher of water on 
the sideboard, and said in a lordly 
tone, — 

“ Draw me a bumper of the white 
wine, menial, an’ have done with thy 
190 


A WONDERFUL ART 


smiles, or I’ll smite thy cheek 
.with my sword.” 

James, instead of complying 
^with his request, withdrew from 
the room doubled up with laugh- 
ter, muttering as he 
went, “ Oh, but he 
does do it well,* 
sir, just like a 
play actor to the life.” 

The Boy, now fully' 
angry, was about to 
after him with drawn., 

Jsword, when Harold 



held his arm, and whispered : “ Do be 
careful ; we don’t talk to servants like 
that now, and uncle never lets boys have 
wine. You can’t have it, and you’ll 
only make trouble with that sword. 
Remember what you are, and keep still. 
I ’ll get you a drink of water.” 

Harold now saw that he had called 
a dangerous sort of person into life, 
191 


THE MAGIC KEY 


for it was hard to appease and quiet 
the Boy, who continued to strut about 
like a ruffled turkey cock, and mutter- 
ing “ Not to talk to servants like that. 
No wine ! Indeed, sir Boy, you seem to 
live in a very different sort of world 
from the one I belong to.” 

“ Yes,” replied Harold, “we do, and 
now that you Ve stepped out into our 
world from your own, you must try to 
conform to its rules or you ’ll be com- 
pelled to go back to your narrow 
frame again.” 

He spoke confidently enough, but 
his heart misgave him when he won- 
dered how this was to be effected, 
should the Boy become too trouble- 
some. However his words had the 
desired effect of calming the Boy, and 
Harold led him up to his own room 
again, where he kept him occupied un- 
til lunch-time by showing him books, 
over which he made many quaint and 
funny remarks. Harold hardly knew 
what to do with him at lunch, and 
192 


A WONDERFUL ART 


wanted to leave him behind; but Mrs. 
Bangs spoiled this plan and arranged 
matters at the same time by putting 
her head in at the door, and, seeing 
Harold with a strange boy, said, “ Oh, 
Master Harold, will you come to 
lunch, please, an’ ask your visitor to 
stay if you like?” So what could 
Harold do but take his visitor to 
lunch with him, though it was with a 
quaking heart at the thought of what 
the stranger might do at the table. 

After one glance at his dress Mrs. 
Bangs evidently decided, with James, 
that this boy guest of Harold’s was 
playing at something, and dressed ac- 
cordingly, so she excused a good deal. 
But her astonishment at his queer 
manners at table was great, as was 
Harold’s. The Boy reached over and 
cut the cheese with his sword, eating 
huge bits off its point as if it was a 
knife. He exclaimed at the cream 
toast, and ate jam with his fingers, 
and used no napkin. 

*93 


>3 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Harold, with many punches and 
warnings and whispers, tried to keep 
him quiet, but when he proceeded to 
wipe his sword on the tablecloth and 
again demanded “ wine ” at the top of 
his voice, Mrs. Bangs could stand it 
no longer. “ Really now, Master 
Harold, if your guest can’t behave 
any better, he ’d best go home. I can’t 
have such actions at my table. Whose 
little boy is he, anyway, askin’ for 
wine at his age ? How terrible ! 
Your uncle would n’t like you to keep 
such company,” she said severely. 

Harold seized his dangerous Picture 
Boy by the arm, and rapidly whisper- 
ing in his ear, “ You heard her, you ’ll 
have to go back where you came from 
if you don’t behave,” succeeded in 
quieting him for the time being, and 
he relapsed into sullen silence until 
they left the room. 

Now in the afternoon Harold al- 
ways went for a walk, or play with the 
boys on the Square, and he thought 
194 


A WONDERFUL ART 


this was a grand way of ridding himself 
of his now troublesome guest, whom he 
was so afraid to trust by himself ; and 
as to taking him with him, he was, I 
am sorry to say, too cowardly to wish 
to exhibit him in those clothes on the 
street ! So he resolved to slip quietly 
away when the Boy should be occupied 
with a game or book, and locking him 
securely in, he could then be free to 
go for a walk, and also to think over 
the problem, becoming now rather 
serious, of how he could restore the 
Picture Boy to his former state before 
any one saw the empty picture. So 
he got the Boy interested in turning 
out the contents of a box, and slipping 
quietly out and saying, “ I ’ll be back 
soon, so see that you stay quiet till I 
return,” he locked the door and went 
outdoors, to think the matter over 
alone. It seemed a very serious matter 
indeed, the more he thought of it. For 
at any time some one might dis- 
cover the lost figure on the canvas of 
i95 


THE MAGIC KEY 


the valuable painting, — “a chief treas- 
ure,” he had often heard his uncle say to 
visitors, and he would be most troubled 
if anything happened to it. Harold 
took a glance in at it as he passed the 
drawing-room door. There it hung, 
an empty and despoiled frame, with a 
blank figure outlined on the canvas 
where once the lifelike figure of a 
smiling boy had stood. “ I wish he 
was back there again,” thought Harold, 
with a desperate hope that his wish 
might be answered. But no effect 
came from his words, and he wandered 
out to a quiet spot in the Square to sit 
and think. 

He thought, and thought, and 
thought, but there did not seem 
any way out of his difficulty. Here 
was the poor Boy so glad to be free 
from his picture, and so pleased with 
everything Harold did for him. How 
could he condemn him to the flat life 
on the canvas again ! It seemed too 
hard. But what would he do with 
196 


A WONDERFUL ART 


him? To-morrow was Sunday. He 
could not take him to church. He ’d 
be sure to do some disgraceful thing. 
Nor could he take him to school Mon- 
day. The idea was not to be thought 
of. While he sat there pondering, he 
heard a shout, and looking up, saw the 
Picture Boy of his thoughts running 
towards him, waving his sword and 
crying excitedly, — 

“ Oh, there you are. They tried to 
stop me, but I came. I slashed the 
servant at the door well, the impudent 
knave ! I will not be stopped ! ” He 
raced up to Harold and sat down by 
him, looking so funny there in the out- 
door air in this modern park, a most 
strange and fantastic little figure in a 
quaint and theatrical dress. 

“ Oh, Boy,” said Harold, “ what have 
you done ? We don’t slash servants 
now, nor call them knaves, and oh, why 
do you follow me in those clothes ? ” 

“ Clothes, indeed,” said the Picture 
Boy, with choking, indignant voice. 

197 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“ Your own, sir, are most shabby and 
poor cloth. Mine are of velvet, as 
befits a gentleman. If you try me too 
far, I ’ll — oh, I don’t know what you ’ll 
drive me to do.” 

Poor Harold had to pacify him as 
best he could, as he well knew a crowd 
would soon gather ; and he made haste 
to draw him back to the house as 
quickly as possible. 

Fortunately people in that Square 
were used to small boys’ plays and 
pranks, and did not seem to think it 
strange to see one apparently wearing 
his last fancy-ball costume in the 
street, so they reached home undis- 
turbed. But what a commotion he 
found there ! Servants running up 
and down stairs; Jane seated on a 
chair, groaning and holding her hand 
with marks of blood upon it ; and to 
crown all, the drawing-room door wide 
open and James standing staring at 
the despoiled picture. He came out 
in the hall as Harold and the Picture 
198 


A WONDERFUL ART 


Boy entered the house, and pointing 
to the picture, asked sternly, — 

“ Master Harold, what does this 
mean ? Do you know anything of 
this mischief ? Master’s Rembrandt 
‘ Boy’ is ruined. The figure has been 
cut out — do you know anything about 
it, sir? ” 

Harold, terrified out of his wits, 
drew the now trembling Picture Boy 
forward, and said, — 

“ Oh, yes, James, here he is. I took 
him out. I did n’t know uncle would 
mind.” 

James glared in perfect astonish- 
ment at him. Had the boy gone 
crazy? And yet the costume of the 
shrinking little figure by Harold’s side 
was the same as the picture had been. 
What could it be ? 

“ Master Harry,” said James at last, 
sternly, “ what does this all mean ? 
Your friend has behaved most terribly 
in the house, — rudely to Mrs. Bangs, 
and even cutting Jane’s hand with his 
199 


THE MAGIC KEY 


sword when she detained him as he 
went out. Who is this rude little boy, 
and what do you mean by asserting 
that he is the picture ? I ’ll give you 
a few minutes to explain, sir, and I 
want you to act quickly, or I ’ll inform 
your uncle at once.” 

Whereupon Harold begged him to 
give him just ten minutes and he 
would set all right ; and upon hearing 
this, Mrs. Bangs, standing by, threw 
up her hands with the exclamation, 
“ Oh, that horrid magic again ! ” and 
fled upstairs to her room. James, with 
a sad look of despair, said, — 

“ Oh, Master Harry, air you at it 
again ? Ton me word, I ’ll inform 
master if you does it again. If ye 
can, do fix it at once, for his heart will 
be broke if his picture be hurt ; it will, 
indeed.” 

So Harold, thus admonished, ran 
upstairs, and securing all the drawer 
had contained, came quickly back, and 
found the Picture Boy standing defi- 
200 


A WONDERFUL ART 


antly, though somewhat in awe of 
James the stern, against the wall 
under the picture. 

He rushed up to Harold and begged 
to be returned to his former state. 
“ Do put me back ; I hate it here in 
your life,” he said. “ Every one is so 
strange and I am so unhappy. I'd 
much rather go back and be a boy in a 
picture.” 

What was poor Harold to do ? 
Here was the boy clamoring and en- 
treating to go back to his picture, and 
at any moment his uncle might return 
and see the empty frame. He must 
put that Boy back at once at all costs. 
But he was much too heavy (as a boy) 
for Harold to lift, so he turned to 
James, and said, — 

“ I must have your help. If you 
do just as I say, we can at least try a 
plan for getting him back.” 

At first James demurred about 
touching the uncanny little person, 
once a figure in a picture, though now, 
201 


THE MAGIC KEY 


apparently, flesh and blood. But at 
last, when both boys united their plead- 
ings, he reluctantly consented to hold 
the Boy up, fitted into the place he 
had left on the canvas, while Harold 
marked over him once again with the 
magic brush and liquid. As soon as 
the Picture Boy’s back was held 
against the canvas, he began to stiffen 
and stick there, and it was no hard 
task to wash over him with the brush, 
for he steadily grew back into the can- 
vas, flatter and flatter, until by the time 
Harold had gone over him with the sec- 
ond coat, he was tight back in the paint- 
ing, with never a mark to tell he had 
ever been away from it. And there he 
stood once more, with a contented, 
smiling face, as he was before; and 
James, seizing the bottle and brush 
and pencil from Harold, flung them 
into the grate. 

He was white and pale with horror, 
and wrung his hands in anguish, of 
spirit. “ Now, never ag’in, Master 
202 


A WONDERFUL ART 


Harold, do ye be trying tricks on, or I ’ll 
leave yer uncle’s house. I can’t stand 
no more of it. It was like smashin’ a live 
person to see him flat out that way.” 

Then Harold had to point out how 
happy the Boy in the picture looked 
now he was back, and recall how he had 
begged to be put there, before he could 
at all persuade James that it was not 
almost a murder they had committed. 

“It’s uncanny, an’ it’s ’orrible, Mas- 
ter Harold, but I ’m only thankful as 
you got it done afore your uncle came 
home, for I don’t answer for conse- 
quences if anything ’ad ’appened to 
that ’ere picture of his.” 

Heartily thanking him for his kind- 
ness and help, Harold departed up- 
stairs, turning once more to glance at 
the Picture Boy, serenely safe in his 
proper place again, with thankfulness 
in his heart to see him there. Jane 
was pacified about the scratch on her 
hand when she beheld the marvellous 
way in which they got rid of the ter- 
rible Boy. 203 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Chapter Nine 

Transformation 

I T was getting late in the spring 
now, and Harolds uncle, suppos- 
ing still that the boys health had 
perhaps something to do with his 
dreams and strange happenings, re- 
solved to send him away for a change 
of air. So one day his uncle told him 
to get ready and go next day to a place 
he knew in the country. At first Har- 
old was delighted with the prospect, 
but it suddenly dawned on him that he 
would be leaving his beloved chest be- 
hind him, and although he thanked his 
uncle, he felt very grave for a while 
about it, just as he had got his precious 
key back again in his own possession. 
It was too bad to have to go away 
before he could even look in the other 
drawer. 


204 


TRANSFORMATION 


However, his uncle unwittingly was 
the cause for a solution of the case 
when he said to Harold, — 

“ You ’ll be all the better for the 
change, my boy, and you cannot take 
any of that bothersome magic with 
you." 

This was to Harold very much like 
the children in the old story, whose 
mother told them, on leaving them 
alone one day, to be “good children, 
and not to put beans up their noses,” 
which at once suggested a new enter- 
tainment to them, — one which they 
would never have thought of them- 
selves ; so they proceeded at once to 
do it. 

So with Harold. He thought," Why 
can I not take some of my magic with 
me ? I took it to school twice, and I 
have one night left. Hurrah ! I ’ll try 
a drawer this very night, and see if it 
proves to be a movable power.” 

So at night, after every one had re- 
tired, and his trunk stood all packed 
205 


THE MAGIC KEY 


for the morrow in his room, Harold 
climbed up on a chair, and began on 
the second row of drawers on the other 
side of the tall, thin chest. True to 
its old power, the magic yielded to its 
master’s hand as quickly as it had be- 
fore, and there stood revealed among 
the carved foliage in this drawer a 
small shining keyhole, into which the 
precious key fitted as before, and 
yielding at the pressure, flew open, and 
disclosed another narrow drawer like 
the others, within whose dark recesses 
Harold could plainly see an oblong 
box. 

“ Is it another picture roll,” thought 
he, “ and will the magic on this side 
just repeat and be the same all the 
way down as the other? Well, even 
then it’s lovely!” he sighed in rapture. 

But the magic soon showed that it 
had a greater power than even he had 
yielded to it. For when he took up 
and opened this little box, behold, it 
was entirely different from any other 
206 


TRANSFORMATION 


he had found, and evidently possessed 
a new magic power for him to try. 
For there in the box lay a small silver 
flask, with a rubber bulb at the bottom, 
and the inscription on its side was 
this, — 


“ When pressed below 
My powers go , 

And other forms 
Before you growl ' 

Harold puzzled over this for some 
time. What could it mean? “ Any- 
way,” he thought, “ this can go with me 
to the country, and I ’ll try it there. 
I ’ll carry it very carefully in my 
pocket, and will not even dare to press 
the rubber on it till I understand what 
it means.” 

At any rate this was all there was 
left for him to do, apparently, for the 
drawer shut to just then with a snap, 
and he was left with its treasure in 
his hand. 

So he got back to bed, and carefully 
207 


THE MAGIC KEY 


placed it under his pillow, far away 
from his head. The first thing in the 
morning he thought of it, and found 
it just as he had left it the night 
before. 

He had to dress quickly and have 
an early breakfast in order to catch 
his train for the country. James went 
with him to the train, and Mrs. Bangs 
little knew what caused such a radiant 
smile on her little charge’s face, when 
she, on bidding him good-bye, said, 
“ I ’m right glad, anyway, to get you far 
away from any more of that nasty 
magic.” Harold clasped his hand 
upon his treasure close folded in his 
pocket, and demurely walked away, 
secure in the thought that some of it 
at any rate was going with him. 

He was alone in his carriage on the 
train until the next station, when a 
stout old lady got in with a little 
dog in a basket, which she kept care- 
fully out of the train-porter’s sight, 
as dogs are not allowed to ride on 
208 


TRANSFORMATION 


carriages with people, on the trains 
in England. 

Harold had been looking once more 
at the treasure in his pocket, and when 
she got in he had no time to conceal it 
except by closing his hand over it. In 
sitting down she jogged his elbow, 
and caused him to press the bulb at 
the bottom of the little flask. He saw 
a fine spray go from it, and instantly, 
to his great consternation and horror, 
she changed before his eyes into a fat 
pug dog sitting on the seat beside him. 
Harold gasped in dismay at the mis- 
chief he had wrought. What was he 
to do? There sat the new-made pug 
blinking at him, and seeming to say, 
“ Wretch, what have you done ? ” 

It looked so much like the old 
woman that he could not help smil- 
ing. There was the same worried ex- 
pression about her forehead, and a sort 
of mild inquiring look about the eyes. 
He spoke to the creature, but it 
only gazed at him (reproachfully, he 
209 


14 


THE MAGIC KEY 


thought) and curled down on the seat 
to sleep. 

What would he do if the porter 
came along and found him with two 
pet dogs in the carriage ? He lifted 
the cover of the little basket, and on 
looking in, found to his amaze- 
ment that it was empty ! What had 
happened? Then he noticed that the 
new pug had a blue ribbon and bell 
on its neck as the other had, and it 
dawned upon him that the magic could 
only transform its object into another 
animal’s form, and that would be, of 
course, the animal which happened to 
be nearest. 

Well, that was not quite as bad as 
if there were two dogs to look after, 
and Harold proceeded to coax the 
mild and anxious-eyed pug into its 
basket, petting it and talking to it ten- 
derly all the while. And just in time 
too, for the train shortly stopped at 
a new station, and the guard opened 
the door. Harold trembled in his 


210 


TRANSFORMATION 


shoes ; but all would have gone well if 
that dog had not poked his head out 
just as the guard was turning away. 
Back turned that official, and sternly 
exclaimed, — 

“ Now, sir, we don’t allow no dogs 
in the carriages, you know.” 

Poor Harold was in terror that he 
would take the poor dog away before 
he could try a remedy ; and indeed the 
man’s hand was on the basket, when 
Harold besought him not to take it 
away yet. 

“ Oh, it ’s the old lady’s ! It ’s not 
my dog,” he wailed. 

The whistle blew just then; so the 
guard, remarking, “ Oh, it ’s the old 
lady’s dog, not yours, is it ? Well, 
where is she ? I ’ll leave it till she 
comes back,” was jerked away, in time 
to slam the door and run along to his 
own carriage. 

When he was left alone again, 
Harold at once got the box and the 
bottle, and examined both minutely 
2 1 1 


THE MAGIC KEY 


and carefully to find any clue as to a 
remedy for this awful power it pos- 
sessed. The stick that gave life made 
all right again by touching the other 
end, and there must be some way out 
of such a terrible predicament. He 
handled it very gingerly, for what if 
he too should be turned into a pug by 
some of its spray ! 

After a most careful examination of 
both box and bottle, all he could dis- 
cover was a small drawing on the 
stopper of the flask, of a mouth open ! 
Well, what this could mean he could 
not tell, and, bewildered and frightened 
at the state of things, he sank back at 
last in despair on the cushions, and 
when the guard came at the next sta- 
tion he was in such a state of terror 
and sorrow that Mr. Guard only 
shorted and went off, thinking it was 
not worth while to make one small boy 
so miserable by taking his dog away. 

As the train flew on, and got nearer 
the place where he knew he should 
212 


TRANSFORMATION 

have to get off, he grew more in de- 
spair. The dog pushed his head out of 
the basket, and Harold threw his arms 
about the fat neck and burst into tears. 

The dog jumped out and licked his 
face, and showed in every way, that 
dogs do, his sorrow for the poor boy. 
In doing so he upset the box, and 
stepping on the flask, as Harold after- 
wards supposed, received a spray of 
the charmed liquid full on his hanging 
tongue. He licked it in, and instantly, 
to Harold’s intense surprise and un- 
bounded delight, was at once trans- 
formed into the old lady again. 

Hardly able to believe his eyes, 
Harold gathered up the bottle and 
stared at her, and not until a yelp from 
the basket beside her was heard, did 
he fully realize that his terrible mis- 
chief was ended, and things were right 
once more. 

“Well, boy, what are you staring 
at ? ” exclaimed the nervous old lady in 
front of him, exactly as if she had 
213 


THE MAGIC KEY 


never budged from her present state. 
“ Is my cap crooked, or anything 
wrong ? ” 

Harold’s relief was so great that he 
gasped, and choking between a smile 
and a tear, he replied, “ Oh, no, ma’am, 
you look just lovely,” which of course 
satisfied her. 

“ Don’t be afraid of my dog,” she 
said, as Harold drew himself away to 
the end of the seat and sank down 
among the cushions ; “ come and pat 
him.” But Harold, who felt that he 
never wished to see a dog again, was 
spared this trial, for the guard just 
then flung open the door, and his stop- 
ping-place was called out. 

Never was any boy so glad to leave 
a train as this one, and it was with a 
thankful heart that he saw the last of 
the long carriages, and caught a last 
glimpse of the old lady and her dog, 
as it steamed away. He was dazed 
and bewildered and glad enough to 
be taken care of by a pleasant-faced 
214 


TRANSFORMATION 


farmer, who said, “Well, well, tired 
out are you? Just jump in the cart, 
an' I ’ll look after yer baggage, sir.” 
And he climbed into the nice, springy 
dogcart awaiting him, with relief in 
his heart. 

He was hospitably received at the 
fine model farm which belonged to an 
old servant of his uncle’s, and every- 
thing seemed to point to a fine time in 
the country for a tired town-sick boy. 
He slept so soundly that night, after 
his anxiety of the day, that he did not 
wake until it was quite late, — that is, 
late for a farm. For he found that 
the household had long been up and 
stirring when he appeared to his nice 
breakfast of eggs and cream. 

He spent a pleasant and happy day, 
seeing the horses, cows, and sheep ; for 
as he had never been on a farm before, 
the place was full of wonder to him, 
and he ran about all day in the fresh 
spring air. 

It was only after he lay down the 

215 


THE MAGIC KEY 


second night that he remembered the 
little magic flask in his greatcoat 
pocket. 

A singular thing about this magic 
was the way in which it held one’s 
mind with a sort of fascination to try 
it. And Harold, even after this terrible 
and frightening experience of the day 
before, felt a longing to take it again 
in his hand and try its power. So he 
went across to the closet where his 
coat hung, and looking into the pocket, 
saw that the flask in its box was safe. 
Then he lay for some time thinking of 
how he might venture to try it the 
next day. 

“ Anyway,” he argued to his con- 
science, “ I know the remedy now is to 
take some in the mouth, an’ that ’s 
what the drawing of a mouth means, 
and I ’d just love to try it. What fun 
it would be to turn that cross old 
stable-man into a cow or a horse ! An’ 
of course I ’d turn him right straight 
back again.” 


216 


TRAN SFORMATION 


So when he arose in the morning 
he put the little box and flask in his 
pocket. Constantly feeling it there 
made the temptation to use it very 
great, and at last he held it in his hand 
constantly. 

He was in the great old barn, watch- 
ing the surly stable-man. This cross 
old person was belaboring a fine horse, 
which was a bit old and stupid, and 
Harold at last remonstrated with him, 
and begged him not to strike the poor, 
patient beast so often. With that he 
turned and swore at Harold, and in 
aiming an extra-heavy blow at the 
horse his whip struck Harold’s hand. 
Out fell the flask, the rubber bulb was 
pressed by its fall, and out flew some 
drops of that dangerous liquid full in 
the face of the stable-man. 

The change took place at once. 
There stood only an old farm horse 
before Harold. “ Ah, ha,” said that 
young man, “it serves you quite right ; 
let ’s see how you like being a horse, 
217 


THE MAGIC KEY 


to be beaten about by people. I ’ll 
let you stay awhile to punish you, as 
long as it is your own fault you ’re 
turned.” 

It seemed as though the cross spirit 
of the man had entered the horse, too, 
for he put back his ears and showed 
his teeth in quite an unaccustomed 
way, and made a snap at Harold, who 
ran out of the door just as a farm hand 
entered. 

“ Well, whatever has come over old 
Boney ? ” this man remarked, — “ the 
quietest and best of horses. Hi, 
there ! ” he shouted ; and as the horse 
still showed signs of ugliness, and in 
fact would not budge when he at- 
tempted to lead him out, the man gave 
him several good cuts with his short 
whip, remarking, “Well, if you won’t, 
then, I ’ll have to beat, but I don’t re- 
member you ever actin’ so ugly afore; 
your temper is gittin’ spoiled by Peter, 
I see, — pity we could n’t try the whip 
on him ! ” 


218 


TRANSFORMATION 


Peter the man, was now occupying 
the horse’s form, and Harold could not 
but laugh to himself to know that this 
was just what was happening. 

The horse was led out in the field 
to work, and so, as Harold could not 
follow him about all day, he seemed 
compelled to let the matter stand. He 
felt afraid to try any more experiments 
with the dangerous fluid, though 
tempted sometimes to do so. For in- 
stance, when watching the pigs fed, 
the farm boy who did this task did 
look so exactly like one of the fat, 
pink-eyed porkers himself, and was so 
spiteful with his poking stick on their 
fat sides, that Harold was sorely 
tempted to try how the boy would like 
grovelling in a pen himself. How- 
ever, upon thinking, it did seem too 
awful to turn a boy into a pig ; so he 
refrained. 

There was a great fear in his mind, 
also, about being able to restore that 
horse to Peter as easily as the old lady 
219 


THE MAGIC KEY 


had been restored from the pug. At 
the tea-table that evening the farmer 
told of the strange behavior of the old 
horse, — how ill-tempered he had been, 
and how he had to be whipped, and 
when they left him as usual to walk 
into the barn, he had rushed up to the 
house door instead, and looked in at 
the windows, and was with difficulty 
driven away ; then going into the barn 
with sad and drooping head, as though 
subdued into being good at last. 

Harold felt very badly now to think 
of what had happened. The horse 
must have been looking for him to 
restore him. How dreadful, and when 
would he get a chance? He was very 
restless all through the evening, for 
he resolved that the mischief must 
be undone as soon as possible. But 
he could make no excuse to go out to 
the stable at that hour, and all he could 
do was to watch where they hung the 
stable key. For he made up his mind 
to go to bed quietly, and creeping 
220 


TRANSFORMATION 


down when all the house slept, go out 
and see what he could do. 

He was so alarmed and anxious by 
now that to stay awake was easy. So, 
after waiting till every one in the 
house was quiet, he crept down, with 
matches and a candle, to get the key. 
It was pretty awful to go down through 
a dark house all alone, and the stairs 
did creak so. But all went well until 
he got to the kitchen where the key 
hung. There, to his consternation, sat 
the old Cook sound asleep in her chair, 
right under the key on the wall ! He 
could not reach it without waking her. 
Oh, if she was only as harmless as old 
pussy, asleep, too, in her lap ! Happy 
thought ! She began to stir and blink 
at him, but before she was quite awake 
enough to see him and call out and 
wake the house, he quietly pressed the 
rubber bulb, and saw her transformed 
into the large, mild gray cat, who only 
stretched itself on the chair and went 
to sleep again. “ On my way back 
221 


THE MAGIC KEY 


I ’ll mend her again,” he said; and then 
he got the key and went as quickly as 
he could through the dark, across the 
wide yard, to the stables. 

He had a hard time getting the big 
door open t and as he went in he heard 
a whinny from the “ Peter horse ” in 
the dark. To make sure of no mistake, 
he found a lantern by the light of his 
matches, and lit it. Then he went 
straight to the stall where the trans- 
formed Peter stood. It stretched out 
its head with an anxious look in its 
large eyes, and to Harold it seemed to 
look to him for help; and when he 
said, “ There, you poor fellow, stand 
still and let me put this in your 
mouth,” the horse stretched out its 
great nose and opened its lips. So 
Harold lost no time in pressing a 
spray of the precious liquid between 
its teeth, for although it was a very 
frightening thing to do, all alone there 
in the stable with the great horse, he 
felt that he must undo the mischief he 
222 













- 































































TRANSFORMATION 


had caused as soon as possible, and 
before the magic power slipped away 
as the rest had done. 

As soon as the spray entered the 
horse’s lips, he shook all over and 
sighed. And then, he never knew how, 
beside him stood the man Peter once 
more, at the horse’s head. That indi- 
vidual stretched himself, rubbed his 
eyes, stared at Harold, and remarked: 

“ Well, of all the queer things ! 
Here’s I been havin’ an oreful dream 
’at I was old Boney yonder. It was 
an unpleasant dream enough — an’ you 
waked me, did ye? I must ’a’ had a 
reg’lar nightmare, an’ waked you out 
of yer sleep. Thank ye kindly, sir; 
I ’ll see ye back to the house.” 

So Harold, hardly knowing what 
else to do, let the matter explain itself 
so to the man. He was so relieved to 
have the mischief undone at last, as 
he went back to the house, escorted 
by Peter, whose manner was certainly 
more gentle and genial. 

223 


THE MAGIC KEY 


In the kitchen the old cat lay alone 
in the great chair by the fire. How 
to get her transformed back into poor 
Cook with Peter looking on was a 
puzzle. However, Peter himself made 
an opportunity by going into the 
pantry close at hand with the re- 
mark, “ My masters, but I ’m hungry, 
as if I ’d not eaten for a day ! ” And 
the instant he was safely among the 
eatables, Harold, in alarm lest the 
rapidly diminishing fluid should go 
before he undid all the mischief it had 
caused, hastened to open Kitty’s mouth 
and send a spray therein. There sat 
old Cook again, rubbing her sleepy 
eyes ; and Harold just had time to hear 
her startled exclamation, as she saw 
him, before he scurried upstairs again 
to bed, and was lying there apparently 
fast asleep when the slow steps came 
up the stairs and into his room. He 
heard her say, — 

“ Why, no, there ’s him all right 
enough. I must ’a’ been dreamin’ ; an’ 
224 


TRANSFORMATION 


Peter, too, with his story of Master 
Harry wakin’ him up from a night- 
mare in the stable, — I should think it 
was a night mare. Such a fuss as 
Peter made ! Well, I ’ll tell him as 
how he ’s all right asleep in ’is bed 
as usual, an’ everything all right.” And 
so the good old creature ambled away 
to her bed, little dreaming how very 
“ right everything ” really was, nor 
how very wrong it had been so short 
a time ago. 

Her own narrow escape from being 
a cat for the rest of her life was un- 
dreamed of by her. But that such 
had been the case Harold realized with 
a shock, when he looked at his flask 
once more and saw that it was en- 
tirely empty ; a few more moments 
would have left no more restoring 
drops, and the consequences seemed 
too dreadful to think of. Frightened 
and excited at this thought, Harold 
took the mischief-making little flask 
in his hand, and flinging it out the 
15 225 


THE MAGIC KEY 


window saw it break into a thousand 
tiny crystal sparks, which immediately 
sank into the thick grass and were 
lost forever. 

Harold spent two very pleasant weeks 
on the farm, with no more exciting 
happenings. He noticed that Peter 
was much more kind in his treatment 
of the horses, and seemed altogether a 
different man from his former cross 
and easily provoked self. So, as far as 
his case was concerned, Harold felt 
that the magic change had been only 
beneficial. 

One morning, as Harold was watch- 
ing Peter, he saw him pause in the act 
of raising his whip, and instead of 
beating the refractory horse, he stroked 
its neck and coaxed and soothed, with 
the usual results of starting the horse 
much better than whipping would 
have done. 

“ Why don’t you beat him, Peter ? ” 
asked Harold, curiously. 

“Well, ye see, Master Harry,” re- 
226 


TRANSFORMATION 


plied that person, “ I had a mighty curi- 
ous dream that night you woke me 
out in the stable, an’ I ’ve felt sort o’ 
different ever since about horses’ feel- 
in’s. Dreamt I was a horse myself, 
I did, an’ I was out in the field all day 
workin’ in the heat; an’ nothin’ went 
right, an’ I lost my temper, but only 
got beat for it. It was a mighty 
strange dream, an’ it took a hold o’ 
me, an’ I can’t a-bear to lift a hand to 
beat a horse without inquirin’ into his 
feelin’s. Why, sir,” he went on, “ do ye 
know that dream was so strong that 
I seemed to feel the whacks Bill 
gave me all over my body for a good 
day or two after, an’ so I changed me 
mind about horses’ feelin’s.” 

Harold said, “ Perhaps the dream 
was true, Peter, an’ you were a horse.” 

“Well now, Master Harry,” he re- 
plied, “ a day or two ago, I ’d ’a’ 
laughed at ye for sayin’ that. Well, 
well, there are some curious doin’s in 
this world. An’ if it was a dream, it 
227 


THE MAGIC KEY 


was a strong one, that ’s all I can say.” 
So thought Harold himself, and in- 
deed he could often hardly make up 
his mind whether these strange magic 
happenings in his power were now 
just very real dreams or not. 

Anyway they were, in spite of 
many dismal endings, certainly very 
delightful and mysterious, and I am 
afraid he looked forward to the time 
when he should return, not on account 
of being with his uncle once more, but 
all because of that wonder-giving chest, 
and the treasures yet unexplored await- 
ing him in his own room. 

So, after another week of pleasant 
country happenings, fishing in the 
brook (he caught two trout), and rid- 
ing the great farm horses bareback, 
and all the delightful things a boy 
does on a farm, he began to long to 
go back to his uncle’s house again. 
He saw nothing more at all strange 
in the old horse who was once a man, 
nor the man who was once a horse, 
228 


TRANSFORMATION 


except, as I ’ve said before, that every 
one remarked upon Peter’s unaccus- 
tomed good-will and kindness to all 
the horses under his care after his 
curious “ dream.” 

So the magic was not without its 
good effect, thought Harold, and it 
made him long all the more to get 
back so that he might try the next 
wonder. Pie wrote to his brothers 
and sister from here, and to Rob, 
giving him a full account of the 
strange transformation scene, as he 
knew Rob would appreciate to the full 
the strangeness of the happening, and 
also could believe him, as he knew 
what this same magic was capable of 
doing by his own experience. Some 
boys on their first visit to the country 
would no doubt have wanted to stay 
longer; but Harold, for reasons which 
we know, was very glad when a letter 
came telling him that he was to come 
home, and though it added a postscript 
to say that his uncle would allow 
229 


THE MAGIC KEY 


him to stay another week if he 
wished, Harold did not accept this 
kindness, but rather joyfully, I am 
afraid, packed his trunk and departed 
one day. The good farmer remarked, 
“ Well, you are the first young gentle- 
man I ’ve ever seen who wanted to 
go home from this ’ere farm when 
the time come. They all wanted to 
stay longer.” 

So Harold had to assure him of 
the enjoyable time he had spent, and 
how he would come again. He re- 
called his experiences on the train, 
and when another fat old lady with 
her dog got in, he shrank away 
and changed his carriage at the first 
station. 

On arriving home all were delighted 
to see the improvement in his sun- 
browned face which his trip had done 
for him, and his uncle quite unbent 
and exclaimed, “Well, my boy, it 
is nice to have you back. I did n’t 
know how much the old uncle would 
230 


TRANSFORMATION 


miss you. I need a bit of young life 
about. But I do hope there will be no 
more seriously alarming pranks or 
adventures while your stay lasts.” 


231 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Chapter Ten 

A rvested Motion 

A FTER he got home Harold 
contented himself for a while 
with merely glancing now 
" and then at the tall chest in 
the corner, for he knew James was 
still remembering his horrid experi- 
ence in assisting to put an apparently 
living boy back into a canvas again, 
and he feared that something might 
come from the next drawer that would 
involve some one again. Besides, is n’t 
this the last, — yes, it is the very last 
drawer there is to open ! Why, as he 
thought of that, Harold started (as you 
did when I said so). He had actually 
come to the very last one of his won- 
derful precious drawers of magic 
power. So, of course, he delayed 
232 


ARRESTED MOTION 


longer about doing it, just as you 
save the last candy the very longest 
you can. 

He wondered if it would be the best 
of the whole lot, and what it would be, 
and the thought came to him that it 
might possibly end the bureau in some 
strange manner ; and then he wondered 
if it would go up in an explosion (re- 
membering the smoke and dust that 
came in Rob’s eyes that time), or if 
anything queer would happen. 

So he was not as sorry as he might 
have been at the delay which came 
that prevented him from getting a 
chance to open this last mystery alone 
by himself. This delay was caused 
by a great event. His uncle, being 
troubled about Harold, thought him 
too much alone and becoming “ imagi- 
native,” and he resolved to better this 
state of affairs by having no less a 
person than Harold’s own dear brother 
come to visit him for a few days 
during holidays. 


233 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Now, Dick was a very different sort 
of a boy from Harold, entirely different. 
He was a boy who did not give much 
time to books nor to imagination, nor 
any of those quiet pursuits, but he was 
an out-of-doors breezy boy, just a healthy 
Boy. Harold, who was three years 
younger, looked up to him in awe, and 
for some time he could not make up 
his mind as to whether he should tell 
Dick about his bureau or not. For 
Dick never mentioned it, having been 
cautioned by his uncle in a letter not 
to do so, as “ Harold’s strange delusion 
ought not to be aided in any way,” but, 
his uncle said, “ he must be made 
to forget it if possible,” and for this 
reason Dick had been invited. 

He felt shy about speaking of it, as 
Dick did not ask about it, for he had 
written him about the key and ex- 
pected to be asked all about it. But 
Dick could not be long in the room 
with that magical thing and not feel 
its power. For after the first day or 
234 


ARRESTED MOTION 


two Harold noticed him once or twice 
going over, when he thought Harold 
was not looking, and examining the 
bureau. 

He waited for Dick to speak, and he 
had not long to wait. That young man, 
after surveying the tall chest several 
times, gave a low whistle, and, trying 
to assume an indifferent tone, said, “ I 
say, Harry, what ’s this old piece of 
lumber?” 

Harold, much amused, replied, 
“That’s my magic chest,” and 
awaited the effect of his words. 

“ That ’s it, is it ? ” said his brother. 
“Magic, — what ’s magic about it ? I 
don’t see anything different from any 
other old carved thing.” Then, assum- 
ing a very superior and patronizing 
air, he sat down by Harold and gave 
him quite a lecture on giving way to 
such imaginings and silliness. “ It ’s 
all stuff and nonsense,” he declared, 
“ an’ a fellow ’s a muff to believe in 
such trash.” 


235 


THE MAGIC KEY 


“ Indeed,” thought Harold ; “well, we 
Will see.” Aloud he said, “ How ’d 
you like to see some of it, Dick ? ” 
And that young person, instead of 
pooh-poohing the very idea, jumped 
up rather too eagerly for one who was 
not at all interested in such things. 

Then he remembered his uncle’s in- 
structions, and said, “Oh, pshaw, Harry, 
you don’t expect me to believe such 
trash, do you ? ” 

But Harold only said, “ Well, just 
wait and see for yourself whether it ’s 
stuff and nonsense or not.” 

At that Dick entirely forgot himself, 
and jumping up ran over to the bureau, 
exclaiming, “ Oh, I say, Harry boy, do 
you mean I can see it, too ? Let ’s 
open it now, can’t we?” 

Harold burst out laughing. “ How 
can you open stuff and nonsense? 
Thought you did n’t believe in it ? ” 

“Neither I do,” said Dick, stoutly; 
“but, but — well, you see I promised 
uncle I ’d not agree with you about it, 
236 


ARRESTED MOTION 


an’ get you not to believe in it. He 
thinks it’s gone to your brain, you 
know. But some way, when you see 
the old thing,” giving it a touch with 
his toe as he spoke, “ you can’t help 
believing a little — anyway, wondering 
what it might have in it.” 

“ That ’s just it exactly,” said Harold, 
“ just the way I feel, and Rob felt, an’ 
that ’s a part of its magic.” 

But at this Dick stoutly demurred. 
“ Oh, no,” he said, “ it can’t affect me. 
I ’m not that sort. I don’t believe it 
has a thing in its old insides, an’ you 
either made them up or dreamed them, 
so there!” And he bestowed a good 
kick at one of the carved dragon’s 
heads. Instantly he jumped back in a 
fright. “Why, the old thing winked 
its green eye at me, it did,” he de- 
clared ; and when Harold laughed 
again, he flung himself in a chair and 
gloomily surveyed the tall chest. 

Then rising, he stalked out of the 
room, saying, “ Oh, come on, we ’ll 
237 


THE MAGIC KEY 


have a game of ball in the Park and 
let the old thing alone.” Neverthe- 
less, as you went out the door, Master 
Dick, Harold saw you glance back 
furtively and with great interest at 
the despised “ old Thing ” in its 
corner, showing that you were not 
quite as sure in your mind as your 
manners would lead one to believe, — 
that it was all “ stuff and nonsense.” 

He did not allude to the chest again 
all day. But when the two boys were 
sitting by the fire at dusk, Dick, who 
had been glancing at the corner where 
the chest stood for some time, suddenly 
said, — 

“ Look here, Harry, there is something 
queer about the drawers in that thing. 
For the last ten minutes I ’ve seen a 
curious little greenish light in the eye 
of that dragon. I ’m sure it blinked 
and winked at me. If that’s your 
magic, do let ’s have it out.” 

“Do you believe now?” said Harold. 

“Well,” replied Dick, trying to re- 
238 


ARRESTED MOTION 


member his uncle’s caution not to 
encourage any silly notions in Harold’s 
head, “ I ’ll believe it when I see it. Go 
ahead with your key anyway, an’ let ’s 
see what all these rows have been 
about.” 

So Harold, only too anxious both to 
see his treasures and eager to display 
their truth to Dick, crossed the room, 
while Dick stood close beside him, and 
applied this precious little key to the 
eye in the last dragon’s head on the 
last drawer in the chest. 

It flew open, making the sceptical 
Dick start back in amazement, and re- 
vealed to their eyes a small rod with 
a hand of carved ivory on the end. 
The forefinger of this hand was point- 
ing, and on the tip of this finger was 
a faint greenish spot of light. 

Dick was for seizing it at once and 
taking it out, but Harold, who had 
grown cautious through long experi- 
ence with these magic things, cried : 
“ Oh, look out ! Don’t fool with it. 

239 


THE MAGIC KEY 


Let me take it carefully. You don’t 
know what it might do to you. Let ’s 
read the verse first.” For his practised 
eyes saw what Dick’s had not, — the 
usual scroll of paper with a verse 
upon it lying under the rod ; and so he 
lifted this out first, and read, — 

“ Before this pointing finger s will \ 

Thou shalt be motionless and still. 

To find again thy power s sway , 

Thou must be brave and find a wayP 

“Whew!” whistled Harold, “that is 
a hard one. I ’m a bit afraid to try it.” 

Dick was now as eager as he to try 
this curious thing. So together they 
planned to go down and experiment on 
the first animal they came across, and 
they could then tell just what its effect 
was, as it evidently was to be tried on 
a living thing. 

So, very gingerly lifting it, they 
went out in the hall, intending to find 
the cat. To Harold’s surprise a small 
mouse ran across the hall ; but instead 
240 


ARRESTED MOTION 


of running away, as mice usually do, 
this one became suddenly rigid and 
motionless. They went close to it. It 
breathed, and its eyes sparkled, but it 
did not move. 

“ The hand,” whispered Harold. 

But Dick, still unconvinced, ran and 
got the cat ; and just as she almost 
sprang upon the poor strangely inac- 
tive mouse, which never budged away 
from her claws, Dick pointed the hand 
at her and they saw pussy also stiffen, 
just as she was, in the very attitude to 
jump, and become as motionless as 
the little mouse before her nose. 

“ Now do you believe in the magic?” 
said Harold, triumphantly, to Dick. 

But Dick’s face showed that. With 
one accord they raced upstairs, carry- 
ing the stick with the dangerous little 
hand pointed harmlessly to the floor 
as they went. 

Seated in the bedroom once more, 
they breathlessly discussed the thing. 
Evidently it was as good as its word, 
16 241 


THE MAGIC KEY 


and “ motionless ” was that word. The 
next question was, Would it work on 
people as well as animals ? 

Dick at once saw the funny side of 
the thing, and said : “ Oh, Harry, what 
larks it would be to go out an’ try it 
on old Policeman Gibbs as he ’s mak- 
ing a raid on the boys ! Come on ; 
there ’s heaps of fun in this thing.” 
And with that he seized the stick and 
ran downstairs. 

When they got to the foot, they 
saw Jane bending over the cat and 
mouse, with consternation written on 
her face. Before she could get any 
further than “ Oh, come an’ see what- 
ever ’s the matter wid the poor cat,” 
the mischievous Dick had raised the 
stick, and, pointing the little fiery fore- 
finger of that hand at her, had turned 
her into the same moveless state as 
the little animals before her. Harold 
was horrified ; but Dick whispered, 
“ She ’d have made such a fuss in a 
minute our fun would all have been 
242 


ARRESTED MOTION 


spoiled, an’ we’ll get her back again 
some way or other.” 

They then proceeded to the kitchen, 
where, on peering through the crack 
of the door, they saw Mistress Cook 
entertaining one of her best friends 
with some of her master’s best food. 

“Here’s a lark,” whispered Dick; 
and in spite of Harold’s whispers of 
admonition he walked in and pointed 
that finger first at one of the feasters 
and then at the other and in spite of 
his fears, Harold could not help laugh- 
ing, it was so very funny to see those 
two rather fat, red-faced old cooks 
“ caught in the very act,” and making 
a splendid tableau of that name. One 
sat with her elbow raised pouring 
tea into a cup, the other in the 
act of raising a spoonful of delicious 
jam to her mouth. Dick and Harold 
spoke to them, but they did not 
show any sign of motion, only their 
breathing went on, and their rosy 
color stayed. 


243 


THE MAGIC KEY 


The boys turned away, laughing 
heartily, and ran up to the front door, 
intending to go in; but at that door 
stood James, with a stern look of utter 
displeasure and reproach on his face. 
He began to say, “At it ag’in, Master 
Harry — ” when Dick, whispering, “ Oh, 
he ’ll spoil all our fun, cross old thing ! 
Here goes,” held up the fatal hand and 
pointed it at James, the stern. He in- 
stantly froze into a statue of displeased 
dignity there beside the door. 

Harold never would have dared to 
do as much to him ; but Dick was, as 
I ’ve said before, a boy of another 
stamp altogether, and nothing must 
stop his fun. Besides, it was all new 
to him ; and, never having suffered as 
Harold had any of the consequences 
which seemed always to follow the use 
of this magic, he was reckless, and only 
thought of the enjoyment of using it. 

They could not help laughing over 
the scenes before them. There was 
Jane bending over the cat and mouse, 
244 


ARRESTED MOTION 


making a picture, while James stood 
sternly pointing at it; and the scene 
in the kitchen was certainly funny 
enough. 

Just as they were turning to go out 
the front door again, their uncle’s study 
door was opened, and he came out — 
to their great consternation. Coming 
forward with his book in his hand, he 
said pleasantly: “Well, boys, what are 
you doing? Too late to go out, isn’t 
it ? Oh, well, as you ’re together, you 
may take a run in the Square, and 
come right back. I suppose James 
stopped you. Well, James, they can 
go. Open the door, and let them out.” 

But James, the stern and silent, 
moved not a finger to obey his master. 

“ This is carrying it too far,” said 
their uncle, now irate at his servant’s 
apparent reluctance to obey. “ I say 
the boys can go, and it is not for you 
to say they cannot.” And he crossed 
the hall in a dignified and hurt manner, 
saying, “ You can go, boys. I ’ll let 
M5 


THE MAGIC KEY 


you out myself,” pointing to the door 
as he spoke. 

The boys were alarmed at the state 
things were getting to, and, seizing this 
opportunity to escape unpleasantness 
(which is a way some boys have), they 
went quickly out. But, alas ! in going 
out in some unaccountable way that 
fatal hand got pointed at their uncle 
himself as he stood there, and, behold, 
he also became a living statue. 

They turned and gazed now in blank 
dismay at what had happened. They 
had not intended this last, and it 
seemed an impertinence, indeed, after 
their uncle’s kindness to them. But 
since the deed was done, how could 
they undo it? 

With beating hearts, now thoroughly 
alarmed at their thoughtlessness, they 
stood and stared at the scene in the 
hall. There, just inside the door, as 
if welcoming a guest, with one hand 
stretched to wave a welcome and the 
other in a book, stood their tall and 
246 


ARRESTED MOTION 


stately uncle; just beside the door, a 
statue of stern displeasure, was James 
the butler ; and beyond, by the stairs, 
Jane and the cat and mouse tableau. 
Mrs. Bangs and a housemaid, who 
were out together, were then the 
only moving members of this strange 
household. And at the thought of her 
possible return and consternation at 
the scenes in kitchen and hall, the two 
boys gasped in alarm and horror, and, 
turning with one accord, they fled out 
into the street in the rapidly gathering 
darkness. 

“ Come on,” said Dick. “Uncle said 
we could go, and it ’s so jolly awful to 
see them all standing there. They ’re 
all right, and maybe we can get some 
way to put them back again while 
we ’re out.” 

Anyway, their feeling was to get 
away before Mrs. Bangs returned. So 
they ran out, carefully closing the great 
door on the strange scene within the 
hall, and ran down the street. 

247 


THE MAGIC KEY 


At the corner was a boy beating a 
dog with a stick. Suddenly the stick 
did not fall, but w r as 
held on high in a 
threatening atti- 
tude; and while 
the dog ran joyfully 
away, the kneeling 
boy knelt on and 
made no motion to 
stop him, — only be- 
came a motionless statue of cruelty. 

A little further along were two news- 
boys getting badly treated by a big 
rough, who was trying to steal their 
papers to sell himself. Suddenly his 
grasp on their arms and collars relaxed, 
and they sped away in safety, never 
turning to see what had disabled their 
bully, but supposing he had given in 
on seeing the policeman approaching. 
If they had looked much, they would 
have been astonished indeed to see him 
stand meekly there, perfectly quiet, and 
let a big policeman almost carry him 
248 



arrested motion 


off by main force to the lock-up. It 
was growing very interesting, and the 
boys were getting rather reckless in 
their use of this power. 

Harry had just used the magic stick 
on a poor tired dancing bear and his 
master, causing them to cease their 
tiresome dancing, while the crowd 
gaped in wonder, when he felt his col- 
lar grasped, and a big burly policeman 
spoke in his ear, “ Here, you young 
gent, it s in mischief you are. You 
come along o’ me, an’ you move on 
now,” turning to the crowd around the 
bear and his master. The crowd 
“ moved on,” but the two in the centre 
did not, and this angered the police- 
man so that he raised his club, and 
keeping hold of Harold, stepped for- 
ward to enforce command with blows. 
Dick, recovering his senses, there- 
upon seized the little stick, and point- 
ing it at the furious officer of the 
law, the two boys had the satisfaction 
of seeing him reduced to a state never 
249 


THE MAGIC KEY 


before known in the annals of the 
police of that city. 

He actually stood motionless and 
let a small boy wriggle away from his 
grasp, and remained standing 
still, long after that small boy 
had disappeared in the dis- 
tance. The boys, upon 
Harold’s release, 
ran away as quickly 



do not occur in any crowded streets 
without attracting attention, and pres- 
ently Harold and Dick, hearing the 
sound of running feet behind, turned 
to see quite a crowd of people pursuing 
them, headed by one of the newsboys 
250 


ARRESTED MOTION 


they had helped, and with a stalwart 
policeman bringing up the rear ! 

The only thing to do was just what 
they did do, — run home as fast as ever 
their legs could take them ! Reach- 
ing it at last, they had barely time to 
run up the steps and open the door 
wildly, when the chasing crowd was 
upon them. Yes, and right after them 
into the house they would have come, 
had not that little ivory hand of fate 
been pointed at them just in time. 
Four boys and a man the big police- 
man, when he came laboring up to 
them, saw standing ; some were in the 
porch outside the door, and some on 
the top of the steps. All were point- 
ing and gesticulating in appearance, 
but all were silent and motionless. 
Hardly glancing at them, however, 
the policeman came on, up and into 
the house, to be met by the figure of a 
scholarly-looking old gentleman, ap- 
parently waving a welcome to him 
and beside him a dignified butler. 

251 


THE MAGIC KEY 


He entered, he addressed the motion- 
less pair. He received no reply, and 
touching his hat, he was about to ex- 
plain his errand, when he himself was 
arrested by a strange power, stronger 
than that of the law he represented. 
He also became a statue, and added 
another to the group in the hall, which 
two little quaking boys stood and 
surveyed in growing terror. “ Now 
you’ve done it, Dick,” said one; “we’ve 
done something to two policemen, an’ 
we ’ll all be hung, and, oh, here comes 
Mrs. Bangs.” 

Sure enough, up the hall by the back- 
stair entrance from the kitchen, came 
that person, with indignation and won- 
der at the scene there, stamped upon 
her face. 

She paused and screamed in horror 
on seeing the strange group in the 
hall, — “ Master” being spoken to by 
a policeman, James standing by, Jane 
paying no attention whatever, and all 
as motionless as statues. No won- 
252 


ARRESTED MOTION 


der she was amazed, shocked, and hor- 
rified beyond expression. Turning, 
she beheld the two boys slinking 
away to the stairs. Pointing to the 
wand in Harold’s hand, she exclaimed 
in wrath : “ Is it that awful magic again, 
wretched boy ? What have you done ? 
Tell me this instant? ” 

“Oh, Mrs. Bangs,” sobbed Harold, 
now reduced to tears, “ I did it with 
this stick. I wish I could undo it, but 
I don’t know how — I don’t know 
how.” 

She wrung her hands in silent mis- 
ery ; and the boys, feeling utterly help- 
less and miserable beyond words as 
they thought of the train of people on 
the steps and all these in the hall made 
motionless and death-like by them- 
selves, and they now utterly unable to 
recall their doing, could only echo her 
words, “ What have we done ? ” 

Mrs. Bangs darted upon them. 
“ Give me that stick,” she cried, “ that 
horrid magic thing!” And though she 
253 


THE MAGIC KEY 


was very much afraid of touching it, 
she bravely seized it, and, carrying it 
across the hall to the open fireplace, 
cast it into the flames. 

This was apparently just the thing 
that was needed to undo its mischief ; 
for scarcely had it touched the heat 
when with a loud report it exploded, 
and a dense smoke filled the room and 
went into the hall. The two boys on 
the stairs were now treated to a curi- 
ous scene, that in spite of their anxiety 
made them smile a little. 

When the smoke cleared away, 
which it did in a second of time, every- 
body seemed to be righted once more 
and alive as ever. Their uncle stood 
talking to the policeman, who was 
touching his hat and apologizing for 
his intrusion. For they heard him 
say, “ I really could n’t tell clearly, sir, 
how I came, for I don’t just recollect; 
but seein’ the smoke, I s’pose it must 
’a’ been after a fire.” James was dis- 
persing the crowd of boys from the 
254 


ARRESTED MOTION 


steps, and Jane was patting the cat, 
who had immediately pounced upon 
the mouse. No one of them all seemed 
to remember why they were there, or 
that anything out of the usual had 
happened. And Mrs. Bangs, on seeing 
that such was the case, refrained very 
wisely from telling them, but contented 
herself with reproaching the two boys 
on the stairs, who stood ashamed and 
sorry at the mischief they had caused. 

She was quite pleased with herself 
for acting as promptly and as effect- 
ively as she had done, and, taking 
them meekly upstairs before her, she 
went straight to Harold’s room with a 
much determined air. 

“ Now,” she said decisively, “ I have 
had enough of this here state of magic 
doin’s, and I said that if ever any more 
of it occurred (after that picture busi- 
ness) we would destroy that old chest 
as it stood. I know your uncle would 
give me leave, though, seein’ he ’s not 
aware of this happenin’, I ’d not break 
255 


THE MAGIC KEY 


his heart by tellin’ it to him. But 
James an’ me will see that this here 
article goes, an’ never comes back to 
this ’ouse again.” 

So saying, she lit the gas in the 
corner, and turned to survey the old 
chest of drawers in grim displeasure. 
To her surprise and to the boys’ great 
amazement, its place was empty; no 
chest stood there any longer. 

“Oh,” said Mrs. Bangs, “James has 
been ahead of me, I see. He’s took 
it away. Well, that ’s over; an’ you 
two are about as ashamed as you 
ought to be. However, it is n’t your 
faults, poor dears, as much as it is that 
old Indian gentleman’s that gave poor 
Master Harry the temptation to open 
them drawers. Well, now they ’re 
gone we ’ll have no more magic, an’ I 
hope peace.” So saying, she bustled 
out of the room. 

But Harold and Dick sank into 
chairs and gazed at the empty place in 
mournful sadness. 

256 


ARRESTED MOTION 


“No more magic,” sighed Harold. 
“ Oh, Dick, it was such fun, an’ such 
company for me when I was so lonely!” 

Dick examined carefully every part 
of the corner it had occupied, and he 
could discover nothing to tell of any- 
thing ever having stood there. 

“ When and where did it go ? ” he 
asked in wonder. “ Really, if I had n’t 
seen it myself with you, I ’d say you 
dreamt the whole thing.” 

As the two boys talked the whole 
story over, and Harold told all his ex- 
periences, they could not but agree (as 
I think you will too) that old Eastern 
magic powers were not intended for 
use nowadays, and they certainly did 
not fit into modern times as well as 
they do in fairy tales or Arabian nights 
stories. 

But Harold was glad indeed that he 
had been able to have a companion to 
open the last of his treasures. For he 
was a witness that it had not been 
simply a dream of his brain, but 
257 


<7 


THE MAGIC KEY 


an actual experience, or set of expe- 
riences, which, though strange enough 
to be “ made up ” and unreal, were 
nevertheless real enough for him to 
write down in a record the main facts, 
and give them to me, that I might tell 
in all its strangeness the history of the 
marvellous wonders once his in an old 
chest, and unlocked by his fortunate 
self with the wonderful little 


Magic Key. 



258 






r. 






















V'-V.* 
•;!?> v • v 
•> < r.'y* 


The Christmas 
Angel 

Written and Illustrated by 

KATHARINE PYLE 

Author of “AS THE GOOSE FLIES,” Etc. 
nmo. Decorated Cloth. $1.25 

All little girls will feel like thanking Katharine 
Pyle for her story. — Boston Transcript. 

A quaint fancy finely carried out. More 
than ordinarily delightful. Do not overlook 
it. — Congregationalist. 

A really delightful Christmas book for 
young children, teeming with marvellous 
adventures. — The Outlook. 

No more charming story for children could 
be described. — Troy Press. 

It is a wonder story, pure and simple, of living 
toys and a little girl’s thrilling adventures in 
the land of such. The text is quaint and 
artistic, and the cover and illustrations are 
most attractive. — Beacon , Boston. 


LITTLE, BROWN, & CO. 

PUBLISHERS 

254 Washington Street, BOSTON 




V; • k i 


As the Goose Flies 


WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY 

KATHARINE PYLE 

Author of “ The Christmas Angel,” etc. 


i2mo. Decorated cloth. $1.20 net. 

T HIS is the story of a little girl who goes through 
the wall of the nursery and takes a ride upon 
Mother Goose’s Gander. At the city of the shining 
towers she finds the forgotten story for which she has 
all the time been searching. 


LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY 

254 Washington Street , Boston , Mass . 


Ns S&ctej 




LB 019 












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- 



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